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Book_ 

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COpyRiGHT DEPOStH 



GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 



GIRLS' 

MAKE-AT-HOME 

THINGS 



BY 



CAROLYN SHERWIN BAILEY 



WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 




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NEW YORK 

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



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Copyright, igi2, by 
Frederick A. Stokes Company 



All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign 
languages, including Scandinavian 



September^ igi2 



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PREFACE 

Make-at-Home-Things for Girls suggests play 
occupations which will amuse and at the same time 
educate girls because they will be able to read and 
follow the text of the book and the illustrations 
with little or no assistance from grown-ups. 

The book also outlines new uses for the waste 
material of the house and the out-door material 
which children can find in wood and field, giving 
them ideas along the lines of imaginative and in- 
ventive play and the ability to entertain them- 
selves. 



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CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface v 

Marble Dolls and How to Make Them . . . i 

Button Dolls 5 

The Funniest Dolls of All 9 

How to Make Your Dolls' House . . . . 13 

Making a Dolls' Cottage out of Paper ... 19 

Paper Furniture for the Dolls' House . . 29 

Box Building and How to do It ..... 37 

Match Box Furniture 43 

Shoe Box Furniture 47 

The Play House Larder 53 

Peas Craft 59 

Potato Patch Fun 65 

Ten Necklaces 71 

Raffia Work ^J 

What to do with Autumn Leaves .... 83 

Garden Games 89 

Fun with Picture Post Cards 95 

Bead Necklaces loi 

What a Box of Paints Will Do 107 

Work Basket Treasures 113 

Worsted Playthings for the Baby . . . .119 

Cork Toys 125 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

How TO Make Clay Toys 131 

Magic Toys and How to Make Them . . .137 

String Craft 143 

How TO Make Your Own Picture Frames . . 149 
How TO Make a School Bag . . . . . .155 

How to Cover Your Own Books 161 

How TO Stencil Your Own Aprons .... 167 
Christmas Gifts a Little Girl Can Make . .173 
Christmas Bags a Child Can Make . . . 179 
A Home Trimmed Christmas Tree .... 185 

Homemade Valentines 191 

How TO Make the Easter Rabbit 197 

Making More Easter Toys 203 

Half a Dozen May Baskets 207 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Group of Dolls Made of Clay Marbles . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

The Button Father and Two of the Button Children 6U 
The Button Mother and Two More of the Button 

Children 6 ^ 

The Hickory Nut Grandmother 7^ 

The Hickory Nut Family 7 ^ 

Acorn Brownies 10 1^ 

Cucumber Man II^- 

A Potato Lady 1 1 i-^ 

Clay Pipe Dolls 14 ^ 

Marshmallow Boy 14 

Dolls' House Made of Empty Cardboard Boxes . 15^^ 

A Cork Cabin 28 '^ 

The Nicest. House in the Dolls' World .... 28 ^ 

Cardboard Furniture 29 

Spool Box Bedroom Set for a Doll 42 

Match Box Furniture 42 

Dolls' Four-poster Bed Made of a Shoe Box . .43 

Dolls' High-backed Chair Made of a Shoe Box . . 58 

Peas Work: Chair, Bed, Tools, Wagon, Barn . . 59 

The Rose Family at School 66 

Grandpa and Grandma Rose 67 

ix 



X ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGE 



Ten Little Indians . 67 "^ 

Twin Rosebuds 70*^ 

The Twin Potato Boys 701^ 

Necklace Made of Corn and Beans; Acorn Necklace 71/ 

Poppy Flower Chain 711/ 

Necklace Made of Beans of Contrasting Colors . . 71 >/^ 
Raffia Work : Hat, Napkin Ring, Photograph Frame, 

Mat 78^ 

Raffia Dolls 79 

Home Made Grace Hoop and Sticks ; Japanese Kite 94 - 

Toys Made of Picture Post Cards 95 

Necklaces Made of Beads and Seeds 104 

Painted Borders for the Dolls' House .... 105 '/ 

Worsted Mammy \22 y 

Worsted Baby 122 v 

Cork Furniture ... I23\/ 

DdII Made of Corks 123 1/ 

Clay Dishes a Child Can Make 136 ^ 

Peanut Spider; The Straw Gymnast; A Ballet Girl 137 

String Hammock 144. 

String Bag; String Horse Reins 145^ 

Picture Frame Decorated With Scrap Pictures . .150 v/ 

Chintz Picture Frame I5c> 

Picture Frames Decorated With Handcolored De- 
signs 151 

Decoration for Child's School Bag 15^^ 

Decoration for Child's School Bag ^S7 ^ 

Decorated Paper Book Cover 166 ^ 



ILLUSTRATIONS xi 

FACING PAGE 

Linen Book Cover a Child Can Make .... i66 - 

Stencilled School Apron 167 

Knife Case; Spectacle Case; Pin Roll; V/ork Bag; 

Memorandum Pad 174-' 

Home Dressed Dolls, Representing Different Nation- 
alities 175 

Handkerchief Work Bag 182 

Party Bag 182 ' 

Doll Work Bag 182 

Nursery Laundry Bag 183 

Home Made Valentines 192 

The Funniest Valentine of All ....... 193^ 

Jointed Cardboard Rabbit 200 

Rabbit Made of Cotton Batting and Twigs . . . 201 

Egg Shell Cradle and Flower Basket .... 204 

Egg Grandmother, Rabbit and Brownie .... 204 

Egg Woman, Roily- Polly Man and Chinaman . . 204 

May Baskets 205 



GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME 
THINGS 



MARBLE DOLLS AND HOW TO MAKE 

THEM 

THERE are so many different kinds of mar- 
bles; peewees and agates and coffees and 
commies, more than a little girl can tell the names 
of. Brother knows how to play as many marble 
games as he has marbles in his bag, but a little 
girl can find a different use for the fascinating 
little round balls. 

They look just like dolls' heads. Why, they 
really are dolls' heads. All one needs to trans- 
form a marble into a doll is a little ingenuity, and 
a body and some clothes. Find your piece bag, 
your needle case, the scissors, and the glue bottle. 
Boys may think it fun to play in the street with 
marbles, but a little girl can have just as much 
pleasure making marble dolls in the house. 

The best marbles for making dolls are the 
little clay commies which brother despises be- 

I 



2 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

cause they break so easily; but they are white, 
can be drawn upon, and take the glue well. 

The first marble doll that the little girl makes is 
Mrs. Commie, the mother of the younger marble 
dolls. Make a rather tight roll of white cotton 
cloth and sew it with over and over stitches so 
that it will not unroll. To the end of this cloth 
body, glue a marble for a head, and when the 
glue is dry, mark Mrs. Commie's features and 
her hair with a soft black pencil. A shorter, 
smaller roll of cloth sewed, crosswise, to Mrs. 
Commie's body makes her arms, and then she is 
all ready for her clothes. She has a very full 
petticoat, made of stiff white lawn, ruffled and 
gathered about the waist and sewed to her cloth 
body so that she will stand alone when it is fin- 
ished. Over this the little girl slips Mrs. 
Commie's dress skirt cut from a piece of grand- 
mother's spotted blue calico morning gown, and 
she sews a pair of puffed sleeves to the doll's rag 
arms. The waist she sews on too. It is just a 
straight piece of the calico draped over the 
sleeves, and fastened at the waist. A full white 
ruffle finishes it at the front and Mrs. Commie 
is dressed, ready to take care of her children. 

Johnny Commie is made next. The roll of 
cloth to which Johnny's head is glued is only half 



MARBLE DOLLS 3 

as long as the one used for Mrs. Commie, and 
two rolls of cloth are sewed to it at the waist for 
Johnny's legs. His arms are made in the same 
fashion as were his mother's, and then his face 
and hair are marked, but his hair is not parted in 
the front as was Mrs. Commie's. He wears a 
bang and a Dutch cut at the back. Johnny's 
shirt has no sleeves. It is just a straight bit of 
white lawn with slits for the arms. His trousers 
are cut from brown velvet to fit his rag legs and 
are carefully sewed on. Rolls of the same 
brown stuff are slipped on his arms and sewed 
to his shoulders (or the place where his shoul- 
ders should be), and his little round jacket with 
slits for the armholes, like his shirt, is sewed to 
his neck. 

Johnny wears a round Eton collar made of 
white note paper, and he has a very gay necktie, 
indeed, which is a scrap of baby ribbon. 

Last of all, the little girl makes the Commie 
baby. Her body is a long cloth roll like her 
mother's because her legs do not show and that 
is the easiest way to make a marble doll. The 
baby's long white dress is made of crepe paper, 
gathered at the neck, and tied with a draw string 
and rufiled around the bottom. She wears a 
very charming cap with a flopping brim to keep 



4 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

the sun out of her eyes when she goes out in the 
garden. A very full ruffle of crepe paper is 
glued to the top of the baby's head. Over that 
ruffle a full crown made of a one inch gathered 
circle is glued. When she is dressed, the Com- 
mie baby is nearly as big as her mother, but the 
little girl can't help that, because marbles, at 
least this sort, are nearly all of the same size. 

Where shall the Commie family live? The 
little girl wonders and wonders, until at last she 
spies an empty note paper box on the library 
table. Just the very thing for a marble doll's 
house, strong and substantial and exactly the 
right size. It is very easily transformed into a 
tiny home. Stand it up on its side and cut some 
square windows in the bottom and ends. Then 
paint a pattern of yellow crocuses on the walls 
with the nursery paints just like the crocuses one 
can see through the big window, out on the 
lawn. A bit of red flannel makes a fine carpet 
for the box house, and when the Commie family 
are set inside they all say ( save the baby, who of 
course can't talk yet), that they wouldn't ask for 
a pleasanter place in which to live out their days. 



BUTTON DOLLS 

THEY are made from big, two eyed bone but- 
tons, and very ugly ones at that. They 
are the kind that mother sews on the back of 
your gingham aprons and around the bottom of 
brother's blouse, but that is not really their only 
use. They are little round heads for dolls with 
two big eyes, and little fat cheeks waiting to be 
painted pink. 

The people in one of mother's old fashion books 
are just the right size for the patterns of the 
dolls' bodies. The mother doll, of course, should 
be made first. Cut out a very pretty, slim lady 
from a sheet of a fashion book, and lay it down 
on a sheet of white cardboard, drawing all 
around it with a pencil — that is, all save the 
head. Then cut it out. One of the larger bone 
buttons makes the doll's head. Glue it to the 
body and fill in the holes in the button with black 
paint making very large eyes. Paint a little red 
mouth on the button and two pink cheeks. 
Paint a pretty lavender dress and then cut out 
the first button doll, the mother of the button 
family. 

5 



6 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

The father doll is made from the pattern of a 
fashion book gentleman. Like the mother, you 
must first draw the outline of the doll on a bit of 
white cardboard. Glue a bone button to the top 
of the body to make the head and fill in the holes 
with black paint to make the eyes. The button 
father wears a painted mustache, and his spandy 
suit is painted brown with water color paints. 

The button children are the most delightful 
little creatures in the world and you will find that 
you are able to draw their bodies with no pattern 
at all, and so make some of the children fat and 
some lean, and some with painted curls and some 
with pig tails. Some of the button children may 
have blue eyes and some brown, just splashes of 
paint dropped into their hole eyes, but it is possi- 
ble to give a button doll's eyes a great deal of ex- 
pression, just by the way you paint them. They 
can look up or down, or roll their eyes, or look 
at their button parents if you leave a little white 
in the button hole showing, uncovered with paint. 

Nearly all of the button dolls wear clothes 
that are painted right on their little cardboard 
bodies; either done in stripes, or polka dots, or 
drawn in pretty red and green plaids. Their 
hair is painted around the edge of their button 
heads on the cardboard before they are cut out. 



BUTTON DOLLS 7 

and the smallest button child is cut with a candle 
in his hand because he is afraid to go upstairs to 
bed at night alone. 

A few of the quaint little button dolls may be 
left undressed. Cut them out with plain white 
cardboard bodies so that you can have the fun 
of dressing them in real, live clothes afterward. 
These button girl dolls wear dainty underclothes 
cut from the lace paper that lines empty candy 
boxes. Cut little skirts and underwaists for each 
doll and paste them to their cardboard bodies. 
Bits of stiff print and scraps of colored calico 
from mother's piece bag make their dresses. 
The dresses are cut out like paper dolls' gowns, 
whole at the shoulders with a hole in the neck 
and a slit down the back through which the little 
button doll can slip her head. The button boy 
dolls are made without clothes and have beauti- 
ful brown reefer suits cut from scraps of brown 
wrapping paper and pasted to their cardboard 
bodies. Such a jolly procession as they make 
when they are finished ! 



THE FUNNIEST DOLLS OF ALL 

SOME of them live in the woods, and others in 
the garden. They are strange Httle crea- 
tures, but most deHghtful to make and they are 
always ready to accommodate themselves to a 
homemade dolls' house and live in it contentedly 
all their days. 

The nut dolls are a family by themselves and 
their heads are to be found all over the ground 
in the woods the morning after the first frost in 
October. Grandmother Hickory is the oldest 
member of the nut family and she has a wrinkled 
walnut for a head on which eyes, nose, mouth, 
and a pair of spectacles are traced with a pencil. 
Her body is a roll of cotton cloth glued to her 
head and her arms are two smaller rolls sewed 
to her body. She wears a checked gingham 
dress, a white kerchief and cap, and in her hand 
she carries her work bag. 

Her son, Jake Hickory, is a farmer. His 
body is made also of a roll of cloth, but, in addi- 
tion to arms, he has two longer rolls of cloth 
sewed to his body for legs. He and his wife and 

9 



lo GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

his very stylish daughter shown in the picture 
are dressed in crepe paper, ruffled in the case of 
Mrs. Hickory and Miss Hickory, and sewed to 
their bodies. 

The acorn brownies have paper bodies. Rolls 
of tissue paper are glued to the under side of 
their acorn heads and twisted lengths of tissue 
paper make their hands and feet. Bits of white 
paper glued to their faces form eyes and mouths 
and they are dressed in brown crepe paper or 
paper muslin. They wear their own acorn caps, 
and the Chinaman has a braid of black darning 
cotton glued to his head for a queue. 

Mrs. Rose Potato lives in the garden and has 
a meat skewer stuck in her head for a body and 
two twigs for arms. If her skirts are made very 
full she will stand alone, and the paper sun hat 
which she wears keeps her face from turning 
browner than it grew. Her eyes, nose and 
mouth are cut out with your paper knife. 

Just next door to the potato lady lives Mr. 
Cucumber, a most gallant, green young fellow. 
He has twig legs and arms with paper hands and 
feet. He wears a leaf hat to protect his squash 
seed eyes, and his paper collar and necktie make 
him look very spick and span. 

The clay pipe people come with bodies and 



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THE FUNNIEST DOLLS OF ALL ii 

very fine heads so one needs only to mark their 
faces, and glue some rolls of paper to the pipe 
stems for arms. The pipe man has his face 
drawn in pencil on the back of the pipe and the 
lady's face is drawn on a circle of paper that just 
fits the bowl of the pipe and is pasted to it. They 
are both dressed in gay bits of cloth and they 
make very nice little dolls. You must be careful 
though, not to drop them. 

The little fig man is made on tooth picks. His 
legs and arms are raisins with almond feet and 
hands. Two figs make his body. He has a 
marshmallow head with a fig cap. He loves to 
visit the dolls' house at dinner time. 



HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN DOLLS' 

HOUSE 

THE very tiny, china doll needs a house, not 
a very large one, but a house just about the 
size of a cigar box. The hinged cover of the box 
makes a swinging door as the box stands on end, 
and the inside should be covered with scraps of 
wall paper. Pictures of furniture may be pasted 
to the walls of the cigar box house for furnish- 
ings, or the furniture pictures may be mounted 
on cardboard backs to make them stiffer, and 
glued to very small blocks of wood that they may 
stand in the house. The floor of this doll's 
house may have a rug cut from a bit of bright 
colored flannel or velvet, and a portiere of the 
same may be hung at the door. 

Four strong shoe boxes will make a most com- 
modious four-room apartment for a little French 
bisque doll. The boxes should be of uniform 
size, the covers should be removed, and the boxes 
glued together at the ends and long sides, mak- 
ing a dolFs house which has two rooms upstairs 
and two downstairs. When the glue is perfectly 

13 



14 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

dry, a door may be outlined with ruler and pencil 
in the upper and in the lower partitions which 
separate the rooms. The outline is then cut with 
a sharp knife. In the same way a window 
should be drawn, and cut in each room. Now 
we have a kitchen and a dining-room, down- 
stairs, and a parlor and bedroom in the upper 
story of the house. The walls of the rooms may 
be decorated with the nursery water color paints. 
A pot of enamel paint will be found very satis- 
factory also to color with, as it will make the 
shoe box house stiffer and more durable. In 
using the prepared enamel paint, the brush 
should always be filled with sufficient paint to 
cover the entire surface of one wall that a neatly 
painted surface may result. Pale green, yellow, 
or tan will be attractive colors to use. When 
the paint is dry, a border made of tiny silhouette 
animals, or flowers, or mother goose figures cut 
from black paper may be pasted at the top of the 
parlor wall and the doll's bedroom. When the 
shoe box house is finished, it may be furnished 
with a set of strong, cunning dolFs furniture 
made by glueing match boxes together, and 
upholstering them with scraps of flowered chintz. 
What sort of a house would the little rag doll 
like ? Suppose we make her a log cabin ! 
















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POLLS IIOaSE MAIJE OF EMPTY CARDBOARD BOXES 



THE DOLLS' HOUSE 15 

There is a box of old corks up in the attic. 
Bring them downstairs, and, selecting those 
which will fit well together, glue them by their 
ends, forming ever so many make-believe logs. 
A square of heavy straw board serves for the 
floor of the cabin. The cork logs are glued to- 
gether for the walls in cabin fashion, and are 
then glued to the straw board floor. The roof 
of the cabin is made of the brown corrugated 
paper that comes to the house wrapped about 
parcels. An oblong piece of this corrugated 
board is bent to resemble a pointed roof, and is 
fastened to the cork walls of the cabin either by 
long pins, or with glue. The little log cabin will 
be even more realistic if there is a fireplace inside 
constructed of clay bricks, and a chimney outside. 
Modeling clay to make these bricks may be found 
in the toy shops now. 

There are still the larger dolls to be housed. 
What kind of an apartment can we find for them 
to live in? Ah, those clean, strong, wooden 
soap boxes which cook has just emptied will solve 
the problem! Take three of them out to the 
barn. Find a hammer, some nails, and the toy 
saw. Who said that a little girl can not play 
carpenter ? 

One soap box is placed upon the other, and the 



i6 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

two are nailed securely together making a two- 
story house. Partitions of heavy cardboard 
may divide each large room into two smaller 
ones, or the covers of the boxes may be measured; 
sawed, and nailed inside for partitions. Stairs 
may next be made of stiff cardboard, folded into 
steps, and having a strip of obliquely cut card- 
board pasted along the edge of the steps to keep 
them in place. Windows and doors may be 
drawn with a pencil and sawed out. The wood 
is soft, and thin and not difficult to cut. Three 
sides of the remaining box, one short and two 
long will make the gable roof of the house which 
should be nailed securely into place, after it has 
been carefully measured and sawed. The out- 
side of the soap box house may be painted with 
some real house paint, red, or colonial yellow, or 
green. The inside of the house will suggest all 
sorts of attractive furnishings. Cretonne may 
be hung on the walls, and some real little rag 
rugs may be woven of strips of calico on a loom 
made of an old slate frame, to cover the floor. 
Perhaps the little girl carpenter will be able to 
make furniture for this house from carpenter's 
blocks nailed together for chairs, and tables, and 
beds, and then painted with enamel paint. How- 
ever it is furnished, it will be a strong, attractive, 



THE DOLLS' HOUSE 17 

serviceable dolls' house, this soap box house. 
Last of all there is a dolls' house made of 
heavy wrapping paper. It will be a suitable 
home for any doll, paper, rag, bisque, or china, 
because the wrapping-paper house may be made 
as large or as small as you wish. The size of this 
last house depends upon the size of the square of 
smooth, stiff wrapping paper which you are able 
to rescue from the scrap basket. Lay the square 
of paper on a table where you will have plenty 
of room to work, get out the glue pot again, the 
scissors, the ruler, and the pencil. Then you will 
be ready to begin. Fold the square into sixteen 
small squares. Then, on opposite sides of the 
paper, make three cuts with your scissors, each 
one square long. The two center squares which 
have been cut on each side should then be laid on 
top of each other and glued into place. The two 
remaining end squares are then brought to- 
gether, and glued at the edges, forming the ends 
of the house. That is the house foundation. It 
may have a corrugated roof and as many win- 
dows and doors as one cares to cut. The win- 
dows may have paper shades and lace curtains, 
and there may be cardboard partitions inside the 
house, making as many rooms as one wishes. 
Tiny woven paper rugs cover the floors. 



1 8 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

The picture shows how pretty a wrapping paper 
dolls' house may be. 

Five homemade dolls' houses and they are 
quite as strong, and just as beautiful, and a great 
deal more charming than the kind one buys in a 
toy shop — because the little girl will have made 
them her very own self. 



MAKING A DOLLS' COTTAGE OUT 
OF PAPER 

A DOLLIES' cottage! Doesn't it sound fas- 
cinating? I wonder if they haven't real 
cottages of their own in Make-BeHeve Land, 
where they eat and sleep, and study and play 
when you're tucked up tight in your bed and the 
sand man is on his way. 

It is a cunning, cozy little bungalow cottage, 
with square-paned windows and a brass knocker 
on the front door, and a front porch with pillars, 
and a red, red chimney for Santa Glaus to come 
down. 

The body of the house is shown in Fig. i. 
It is made from a strip of heavy drawing paper 
eighteen and a half inches long and four and a 
half inches wide. A flap a half inch wide, and 
four inches long is left at one end for pasting, 
and the rest is divided by lines into four sections 
— two of them four inches wide, and two five 
inches wide, as shown in the diagram. The four- 
inch sections are the side walls, and the five-inch 
sections, the front and back walls. The extra 

19 



20 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

half inch at the bottom is cut where the corners of 
the house are, so that when the house is folded in 
shape, and the end flap pasted inside of the back 
wall, the flaps at the bottom may be folded in like 
the edge of a floor and the corners where they 
lap over each other fastened with the little brass 
fasteners that are used for pierced brass work. 
This gives the house strength and firmness, and 
makes it possible to slip a four by five inch piece 
of paper in for a removable floor or rug. 

On each of the side walls are two little win- 
dows, each of them one inch square, and with 
sixteen little square panes of glass, and the win- 
dow sills an inch and a half from the floor. 
These windows are made by cutting out the 
squares, and pasting on the inside some trans- 
parent paper which has the little square window 
panes marked on it. 

At the back of the house there are three little 
windows in a row, and in front are two windows 
with a door between. The door is an inch and 
a half wide by two and a half high, with two 
cross panels at the bottom and twelve little panes 
of glass in the upper portion, and of course a 
brass knob and knocker marked on. It is cut 
round three sides, so that it will open, with the 
fourth side as a hinge. 



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A PAPER DOLLS' HOUSE 23 

Next comes the porch floor (Fig. 2). This is 
two and a half inches by five and a half, with a 
projection at the back a half inch wide by five 
inches long, which slips underneath the front of 
the house, and fastens with the same fasteners 
that hold the bottom flaps of Fig i. 

The four little flaps shown in Fig. 2 are to be 
cut with a knife on the full lines and folded up on 
the dotted lines, to fasten to the pillars. 

Fig. 3 shows the pillars themselves. There 
are four of them, each made from a piece of 
paper two and one-half inches by three inches. 
This is folded into five sections a half inch wide 
by three inches high. The pillars are square, 
but there must be five sections, because one has 
to lap over to hold it in place. These do not 
need to be pasted — simply folded and placed up- 
right on the porch floor, with the sides which lap 
over each other against the back of the little 
flaps. Then a fastener through the three thick- 
nesses will hold each pillar in place. 

Fig. 5 shows the upper front wall. It is made 
from a piece of paper five and three-quarters 
inches by six and one-half, drawn and cut to the 
shape shown. The curved line and the slanting 
lines just below the window are not to be cut, 
but simply drawn to represent boards. The 



24 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

four little flaps are cut just as those in the porch 
floor were, but they are not bent. They project 
straight downward and fasten to the upper ends 
of the pillars. The lower part of Fig. 5 is folded 
back to form the porch roof, and the little flap at 
the edge is folded up and fastened to the front 
of the house, so that the porch roof is exactly 
three inches from the floor. 

For the upper back wall a piece is made like 
the upper part of Fig. 5 — just as though it were 
cut off at the dotted line A-A, and had no flaps. 
This is pasted to the back wall of the house so 
that it is even with the front. 

Now conies the roof (Fig. 4). This is just an 
oblong seven inches by ten, folded on the dotted 
lines to fit the top of the end walls. There are 
two slits for the chimney. The exact position 
of these slits does not matter, so long as they are 
in one of the topmost sections, but they must be 
parallel, five-eighths of an inch apart, and five- 
eighths of an inch long. 

Fig. 6 shows the chimney. After it is cut and 
folded, the two end sections should be lapped and 
pasted, and the two points slipped through the 
slits in the roof, and folded back and pasted un- 
derneath. It serves not only as a chimney, but 
as a very good handle for lifting off the roof. 



A PAPER DOLLS' HOUSE 25 

The roof is to be left unfastened, so that the 
hands that are still too big to reach through the 
doorway of dollies' world can arrange the furni- 
ture from the top. 

The furniture is very plain. First there is a 
table, and this is made of a three-inch square of 
the same paper that you used for the house. 
Draw the diagonals, or lines from adjoining cor- 
ners to the opposite corners, and then fold each 
corner of the paper into the point where these 
diagonals cross. After these folds are creased, 
lift the points up until they are at right angles 
with the inside square. Then turn the table 
over and rest it on the points. You will find that 
it stands quite steady, and gives somewhat the 
effect of a table with a long tablecloth on it. 

Next comes an old-fashioned settle. This also 
is made from a three-inch square. It is folded 
once through the center in each direction, then 
each edge is folded to one of the center creases, 
forming sixteen squares. Then, with the paper 
double, the ends are opened to look like Fig. 6, 
and cut, through one thickness of paper from a 
to b and from a to c. Then the two sections 
marked e are folded forward to form arms, and 
the two sections marked d are pasted to them. 
The two squares which were cut loose are lifted 



26 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

up and bent in the opposite direction, while the 
two squares underneath them are folded up to 
form the seat. Then the two loose squares 
which were bent down at the ends of the seat are 
pasted in place. The settle is very easy to make 
once a child learns how. 

The chairs are made in exactly the same way, 
except that after the sixteen squares have been 
folded, one row of four squares is cut off, so that 
the proper width for a chair is made. 

The bed is an old-fashioned four poster. The 
body of it measures two and a half inches long 
by one and a quarter wide. From each side pro- 
ject two pieces a half inch long by a quarter inch 
wide, which bend down and form the legs. At 
each end are two pieces an inch long by three- 
sixteenths of an inch wide which bend up to form 
the tall posts, and white paper bedclothes and pil- 
low make the bed look very inviting for its dolly 
occupant. 

Who do you suppose this occupant is? She 
is just a dear little old lady doll, with old-fash- 
ioned dresses and apron, and bobbing corkscrew 
curls. The little cottage is too small for a whole 
dolly family to live in, but let me tell you a secret 
— the dear little old lady has relatives. She has 
sons, and daughters, and cousins, and oh, so 



A PAPER DOLLS' HOUSE 27 

many little grandsons and granddaughters. 
And they all come to see her, and when too man}^ 
come to be entertained in the little house, the little 
old lady entertains them on the porch and in the 
garden and if you make all these dolls, you can 
have just as jolly times as she does. 




(a) a cork cabin 

(b) the nicest house in the dolls' world 



PAPER FURNITURE FOR THE DOLLS' 

HOUSE 

NEXT best to having a family of dolls small 
enough to dress in scraps from the rag bag 
and carry around in a little girl's pocket, is the 
fun of owning a set of dolls' furniture just the 
right size for these little dolls to really use. Of 
course one may buy a set of tiny furniture at the 
toy shop, but if a little girl has had the experi- 
ence of going shopping for beds and chairs and 
tables for the playhouse, she will have found out 
that so very often the things that the toy shop 
man makes are not the right size. The bed is 
too small, and the chairs are too high, the stove 
is way up above the little cook dolFs head, and 
the piano is too big to go in through the doll 
house door. 

There is a splendid way out of this furniture 
dilemma, though. Why should a little girl not 
make her own set of furniture ? It will be very 
easy to do when she learns how. The materials, 
just scraps of stiff paper, or thin cardboard are 
right at hand, and the fun of measuring, cutting, 

29 



30 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

and pasting the chairs, tables, dressers — every- 
thing in fact which a Httle doll needs — will make 
many rainy indoor afternoons most happy ones. 

Book cover paper which may be bought for a 
few cents a sheet is just the right quality for 
making paper furniture. It comes in lovely, soft 
colors — greens, blues, and tans, and with some 
scraps of figured chintz to paste on the finished 
articles for upholstery, the furniture will be even 
prettier than any that one buys at a toy shop. 

Bogus paper is also attractive and stiff enough 
to use for the furniture. It is a kind of heavy, 
brown paper that the butcher uses to wrap his 
wares in, and he will very likely give a little girl 
as many sheets as she wants for the asking. 
Bristol board is an excellent furniture material, 
and even the pieces of strong wrapping paper 
that come to the house with parcels will make 
dolly happy indeed after they have been trans- 
formed into dainty bits of furniture for her own 
special delight. 

One will need some glue or paste, a nicely 
sharpened pencil, a pair of scissors and a ruler. 
Mother's kitchen table will be splendid to work 
on, or one may spread one's materials on the 
piazza floor and work out of doors. 

First, the paper will need to be cut into 



PAPER FURNITURE 31 

squares, as many squares as the number of 
bits of furniture one intends to make. These 
squares must be laid out very exactly with the 
ruler and pencil, because, if the edges and cor- 
ners are not true, the finished furniture will not 
stand straight. No one would want a doll to 
fall out of her chair and break her little nose, just 
because the chair was not made well. 

When the squares are all cut just the size one 
wishes — and six-inch squares will be a very good 
size — they must be folded, each into sixteen 
small squares. Lay a square of paper on the 
table in front of you, and fold the front edge even 
with the back edge. Next open the square and 
fold the back and front edges until they just 
touch the first fold which was made. The right 
hand edge of the square should then be folded 
even with the left hand edge, the square unfolded 
again and the right and left hand edges folded 
to touch the last fold which was made. If these 
directions are carefully followed, the paper will 
be found to have sixteen small folded squares. 

We will make a table first for the dining-room 
in the doll house, because that is the easiest piece 
of furniture with which to begin. Make four 
cuts, each one square long and two squares apart 
in the large square. The paper must then be 



32 GIRLS' i\lAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

folded where there are dotted Hues in the draw- 
ing and the squares that were cut are carefully 
pasted underneath the two uncut squares on each 
side, forming a square box foundation. Invert 












rotdina /or Ts-^U and 3tovc. rotdtn^ /or Chatr. 





















fblcCi-rta /or 3^<fC. 



f^tcCtn^ /ar JJ-ress&r 



the box, cut some legs — and there is your little 
table. It will be strong enough to hold a set of 
wee china dishes for tea, or the little wooden 
bowl in which the cook doll stirs her cake dough. 
Chairs for the dining-room come next, of 



PAPER FURNITURE ^^ 

course. Cut four squares from one side of one 
of the larger squares. Then cut three more 
squares from the end, cut the paper that remains 
in just the same way that you made the cuts for 
the table. Paste the loose squares, one on top of 
the other, folding one center square down and 
pasting it in front while the other stands up 
straight for the back of the chair. The heavy 
lines in the drawing will show you just where 
to make the cuts for the chair and the dotted 
lines show the folds. The chair legs should be 
cut out and strips of passe partout binding may 
be pasted on to indicate the seat and back of the 
chair. Tiny bits of cretonne or scraps of flow- 
ered wall paper can be glued on for upholstery 
and will be very pretty in the dolly's dining-room 
if the colors match those of the doll house wall 
paper. 

We will make cook's little stove now. A large 
square should be cut, folded, and pasted just as 
the table was made. An oven door is cut in the 
front, circles of red paper are pasted to the top 
for stove lids, and a bit of paper is made into a 
roll, pinned or glued together, and inserted in a 
hole at the back of the stove to represent a stove 
pipe. Black cardboard should be used for the 
stove, and if it be heavy enough, the stove will 



34 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

hold little tin pots and kettles, and will look like 
a real iron one. 

We must think about dolly's bedroom next. 
The doll's bed is made of a large square from 
which four small squares have been cut. Two 
cuts, each one square deep and one square apart 
are made in the ends of the piece of paper which 
remains. These loose squares are pasted to- 
gether and the center small squares are bent up 
to form the head and the foot of the bed. The 
legs of the bed are then cut out, and the bedding 
may be made of ruffled white crepe paper, or bits 
of silk and lawn from mother's piece bag. 

The doll's dresser has two cuts in the front, 
each one square long and two squares apart. 
On the opposite side of the paper, two cuts, each 
two squares long, are made, and two squares in 
the center are cut out, leaving an oblong flap to 
be folded up as a support for a mirror. The 
squares at the back are lapped over and pasted, 
and the front squares are pasted to the center 
uncut squares. A little tin foil mirror may be 
hung at the back, and in the front, the dresser 
drawers and drawer knobs may be indicated by 
bits of passe partout binding. A white cover 
made of crepe paper or of the lace paper from an 
empty candy box completes the little dresser. 



PAPER FURNITURE 35 

The doll's bedroom may have a rocking chair, 
made after the same fashion as the dining-room 
chairs, the rockers being just half circles of paper 
glued to the chair legs. A ruffle of crepe paper 
about the seat, and a cushion of the same will 
make the rocking chair more comfortable for the 
grandmother doll. 

An ingenious little girl, when she has learned 
how to make the bits of furniture shown in the 
picture will find out for herself how to construct 
no end of other charming, dainty things for 
dolly — the kind of furniture that no toy man 
knows how to make. 



BOX BUILDING AND HOW TO DO IT 

SUPPOSE mother gives you some more boxes ; 
a nice, strong, empty box; a starch box, a 
thread box, a note paper box, a candy box lined 
with pretty lace paper. Suppose you have a pair 
of shining, blunt pointed scissors. How jolly if 
the box and the scissors could help you in your 
play? Indeed they will. An empty box makes 
the most delightful kind of a plaything that a lit- 
tle girl ever had. Empty boxes that mother usu- 
ally throws away may be used for all sorts of 
delightful box building, and this is the way to 
do it. 

Two empty cardboard starch boxes set, one 
on top of the other, make a very serviceable dolls' 
house. The boxes should be just the same size, 
and held together with a thick layer of glue 
spread on the long narrow side of one. Brass 
paper fasteners may be used in place of the glue 
to hold the two stories of the starch box house 
together, and they should be inserted at the four 
corners. Now you are ready to furnish the little 
house. 

37 



38 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

Every attic has a roll of wall paper scraps. 
Select a small pattern from among these papers 
and cut pieces which will just fit the back of the 
dolls' box house. The easiest way to fit the wall 
paper is to lay the box down on the wrong side 
of the paper and draw around each side, cutting 
the pieces out carefully on the lines afterward. 
The wrong side of the wall paper is then covered 
with a layer of flour paste and the pieces of paper 
are pasted to the walls of the box house. 

Some rugs for the box house are made by cut- 
ting oblong pieces of soft woolen cloth in green, 
brown, or red to fit the floors of the house and 
fastening them to the floors by means of tiny 
stitches taken at the corners. Windows are cut 
next in the box house. Lay the house, back 
down, on a cutting board. Outline windows on 
the walls with ruler and pencil, and cut these out 
with a sharp knife. Lace paper from a candy 
box makes charming lace curtains pasted on, or 
a ruflle of 8wiss or lawn may be made and sewed 
to the top of the window. 

The box built house may have box furniture 
made just the right size to fit its two floors. 
Smaller boxes, either the little ones in which the 
doctor packs his powders or small empty thread 
boxes may be used for this. 



BOX BUILDING 39 

An empty spool box, the tiny size which holds 
twist makes a bed for the dolls' box house. Cut 
the narrow edge of the cover into four posts and 
glue them to the four corners of the box. Sew 
a ruffle of flowered calico with over and over 
stitches to the edge of the bed and make a little 
mattress and a pillow stuffed with cotton for the 
inside of the bed. A counterpane of calico like 
the ruflle is tucked over the little bed. 

A twist box cover glued to a match box for a 
foundation makes the little dressing table shown 
in the picture. The top is covered with calico 
and a ruflled frill of white lawn is sewed around 
the edge. 

The rocking chair for the box dolls' house is 
a very easy bit of furniture to make. The cover 
of a twist box has a section of the box itself glued 
inside for the chair's seat. To make the rockers, 
lay a saucer down on a bit of cardboard, draw 
around it, cut out the circle and use halves of it 
for the rockers. They are glued to the sides of 
the chair. The scraps of calico which remain 
after the bed and dressing table are finished may 
be used to upholster the chair. 

You can make yourself a capital barn for the 
dolls' coach house from an empty shoe box. 
Remove the cover and turn the box upside down. 



40 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOiME THINGS 

Exactly in the center of one side of the box draw 
a big square. The square should come down as 
far as the edge of the box because it is to be the 
door of the barn. Draw a perpendicular line 
that divides the square into halves. Now take 
your scissors and cut right up this line as far as 
the top of the square. Then cut along the top 
line to the right and left of the center line. 
When these two halves of the square are folded 
back, there will be two fine, wide barn doors. 
Squares cut from the side of the box make barn 
windows, and a clever child will be able to con- 
struct a gable roof for the barn by bending a 
larger box cover and glueing it into place. A 
toy garage can be made in just the same way to 
hold the dolls' automobile. In making the ga- 
rage, bright red paper may be pasted all over the 
outside and marked in squares with white chalk 
to look like bricks. 

You can make your empty match or spool 
boxes into long trains of cars which will steam 
around the nursery floor on a rainy day and take 
the dolls for many trips when they can't go out- 
doors. To make a match box train, string as 
many empty boxes as you intend to have cars 
in your train on a length of strong linen thread. 
The engine is a match box and its cover with an 



BOX BUILDING 41 

empty spool glued to the end for the smoke stack. 
The car and engine wheels are bone collar but- 
tons stuck through holes pierced with a knife in 
the sides of the boxes. 

A train of cars made of empty thread boxes 
is coupled together with bent hairpins. The 
wheels are empty spools slipped on the ends of 
meat skewers — the skewers themselves are glued 
to the under side of the boxes. A train of this 
kind is splendid for taking a crowd of paper dolls 
or tin soldiers off for an excursion or a picnic. 

You can make a fine Noah's Ark from an ordi- 
nary, strong, pasteboard box if the cover is re- 
moved and a gable roof made of stiff paper or 
bristol board is folded and pasted to the top of 
the box for a roof. In one end of the box a door 
is cut to indicate the front of the ark. On both 
sides of the box, and on the end opposite the door 
square windows are cut out, or they may be just 
marked with a soft black pencil. This ark will 
hold ever so many of the small nursery animals, 
and with a long string tied to the bottom it can 
be dragged across the floor with as much ease as 
a real toy shop ark. 




(a) spool box bedroom set for a doll 

(b) match box furniture 



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MATCH BOX FURNITURE 

MOTHER usually throws them away — the 
many strong little wood boxes covered with 
blue paper that hold the family supply of matches. 
It seems rather a pity too, that they have to be 
consigned to the fire or the scrap bag because 
they are such attractive, firm, little empty boxes. 
It really seems as if they might serve some better 
use than holding matches, and then — not any- 
thing at all. 

But an empty match box is good for some- 
thing. It can serve a delightful, play use. It 
can be transformed by a handy boy or girl into 
quite as attractive and strong a piece of dolFs 
furniture as any to be found in the toy shop. A 
chair, or a table, or a dresser made of match 
boxes will be small enough to fit in any room in 
a doll's house, no matter how tiny. 

Just ask mother to save the boxes when all the 
matches have been used instead of throwing 
them away. Then, some Saturday afternoon 
when it is raining and you can't go outside to 
play, hunt up the glue pot, your shears, and some 

43 



44 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

bits of flowered calico from mother's piece bag; 
pull out the kitchen table to work on, and spend 
the whole long afternoon making match box 
toys. 

Four empty match boxes, without the covers, 
glued securely together, make a dolls' bookcase, 
or a china closet, either you want to call it. 
Three boxes, glued one on top of the other, make 
a little dresser for the dolls' house with drawers 
that will really pull out and push in when they 
are filled with the trousseau of a tiny, china doll. 
Holes should be punched with an awl, or some 
other sharp instrument in the front of each 
match box, and through these holes, bone collar 
buttons are pushed to serve as knobs for the 
drawers of the dresser. A lace cover made of 
the paper lace in a candy box is laid for a cover 
over the top of the little match box dresser. 

Three boxes make the match box table as is 
shown in the picture — one forming the standard 
to which the two remaining boxes are glued. A 
piece of the figured calico just the size of the top 
of the table is cut and glued in place. 

To make the doll grandmother's high backed 
rocking chair, a match box is cut in half with a 
sharp pen knife, and one of the sections is glued 
inside a cover from which one broad side has 



MATCH BOX FURNITURE 45 

been cut out. The picture shows you just how 
to do this. When the glue has set, some rockers 
made by cutting the round cardboard cover of a 
milk bottle in half are glued to the sides of the 
chair, and it is upholstered by glueing on scraps 
of the flowered cloth to the seat and back. If 
the rockers are put on carefully, it will rock quite 
as satisfactorily as any grown-up rocking chair. 

The old-fashioned sofa which is shown in the 
picture is made by fastening a match box by its 
long narrow side to the broad side of a second 
box. The sofa is then upholstered in the same 
fashion as the rocking chair. To make it look 
quaint and more like the furnishings of a grand- 
mother doll's house, the sofa should have a 
ruffled valance about the edge made by gathering 
a narrow strip of cloth like that used for the seat 
and back. This should be fastened with tiny 
stitches to the upholstered seat. 

The match box cradle is the daintiest of all the 
pieces of furniture. One broad side is cut from 
the cover of the box and then the remaining piece 
of the cover is cut in half. You will have to do 
this very carefully so as not to split the cover. 
One of these pieces, glued to the end of the box, 
forms the head of the cradle. Halves of card- 
board circles glued to the ends make the rockers. 



46 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

A tiny feather bed, made of white lawn and 
stuffed with either milkweed seeds or thistledown 
should be put in the bottom of the little cradle, 
making it comfortable for the doll baby who will 
sleep inside. There is a pillow of the same 
which may have a lace pillow sham made of 
candy box lace paper. A ruffle of white lace or 
lawn is gathered and sewed to the edge for a 
valance, and the little cradle is done. 

You can furnish a dolls' kitchen, too, with 
match boxes — just fancy! A doll's kitchen cab- 
inet is made like the dresser, only twice the size, 
six boxes being glued together, three on one 
side and three on the other. Four match boxes 
form the kitchen range — the stove pipe being a 
roll of black paper fastened to the top, and little 
red paper circles glued on to look like red hot 
stove lids. A kitchen table may be made like the 
one in the picture only without the cover. Two 
sofas can be made and glued side by side for the 
kitchen settle, and the kitchen is finely equipped 
for any doll cook's needs. 



SHOE BOX FURNITURE 

UP in the attic there is a fine, large, strong box 
that father's shoes came in last week. It 
was almost thrown away, but it did escape. 
Bring it down to your toy work shop. Bring 
also the two smaller shoe boxes that held your 
own last new shoes, and the baby's sandals. 
You are going to use just these three shoe boxes 
to make three more pieces of charming furniture 
for the dolFs house. 

You will need a few tools for the shoe box 
furniture. You will find a sharp jack knife 
necessary for cutting the boxes, and you will 
need a pair of blunt pointed scissors to help you 
in upholstering. A pot of glue and a brush 
must be bought, and do ask mother to give you 
some scraps of flowered cloth from her piece bag 
to make the furniture look pretty. When you 
have found your needle and thread, and your 
thimble, we shall be all ready to begin work on 
the shoe box furniture. 

The largest box is going to be the foundation 
of a toy four-poster bed. The cover of the box 

47 



48 GIRLS' JMAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

should be removed, and the box itself meas- 
ured with a ruler, lined with a pencil, and cut 
down to one-half its original height. The strips 
of cardboard which are left from this cutting will 
make the posts of the bed. The posts are an 
inch wide, and five inches high. A post is glued 
to each corner of the bed. \\ hen the glue which 
fastens the posts is dry, we are ready to make 
the top of the bed. The top of the box without 
any altering, may be slipped over the posts, and 
glued in place. Now we will upholster the bed. 

A very full rufile of the flowered cloth is 
hemmed and gathered, and sewed to the edge of 
the bed. A piece of the same cloth of exactly the 
same size as the top cover is glued to the top, or 
canopy. A curtain is draped about each post, 
glued at the top and tied at the bottom with a 
bow of narrow ribbon. A narrow, full ruffle 
edges the canopy. The upholstering of the bed 
may be done entirely with glue, or the cloth may 
be sewed to the cardboard. Either method will 
be found satisfactory. 

The little girl draftswoman must make the 
bedding now for the four-poster. It should have 
a real old-fashioned feather bed, made of white 
muslin, and stuffed with dry milk weed seeds or 
cotton batting. There may be a white counter- 



SHOE BOX FURNITURE 49 

pane and a pillow roll made of cotton with a 
white cover, and a second cover of flowered stuff 
similar to that used for the upholstering will 
make it even prettier. 

Next comes the dolls' dresser. One of the 
small boxes is cut in half, and the two halves are 
slipped, one inside the other, and glued in place 
to form an oblong foundation for the dresser. 
Half of the box cover should be glued to the back 
of the dresser as a support for the mirror. The 
body of the dresser should be ruflled to match the 
bed, and it has a white lace cover. A doll's 
mirror is hung at the back, and two curtains are 
sewed at either side of it and tied with ribbons 
just above the white cover of the dresser. If 
there is not a toy mirror available, an oval piece 
of cardboard may be covered with tin foil, and it 
will look quite as realistic. 

The shoe hox chair is so comfortable that one 
longs to be the grandmother doll, and lean back 
in it and have a nap. One end of the remaining 
small shoe box is cut out entirely, leaving the box 
with only three sides. The box should then be 
placed on end and the outlines for the sides of 
the chair are marked with a pencil on the long 
sides of the box. A quaint, old-fashioned style 
of chair should be chosen. The old-fashioned 



so GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

chair that has been consigned to the attic will 
furnish a charming pattern. The sides will be 
wide at the top of the chair, a bit narrower in the 
middle, and they must curve outward for arms 
where the doll's arms will rest. When these out- 
lined sides are cut with a sharp knife or pencil, 
one-half of the box cover is inserted just above 
the arms of the chair for the seat, and it is glued 
in place, or pinned with paper fasteners. A 
paper pattern of each side of the chair, and of 
the back and front is next drawn to help with the 
upholstering. These patterns are made by lay- 
ing the chair down on a piece of paper pinned on 
a drawing board, and drawing around each side. 
The patterns are then cut and from them the bits 
of flowered cloth are made which are glued to 
the chair to upholster it. The seat of the chair 
should have a soft chintz cushion, and a wide, 
full ruffle, just below the arms. 

There are other pieces of doll's furniture to be 
made with shoe boxes. By cutting down a box 
as you did for the bed and making curved rockers 
from the cover, which are fastened to the ends 
of the box, a very strong little cradle can be 
made. The cradle may have a plain cover of 
cretonne, or a full ruffle like that on the bed. 

A chair like the one in the picture may have 



SHOE BOX FURNITURE 51 

rockers also to make it more comfortable for the 
grandmother doll, and one of the boxes, inverted, 
will serve for a table if the legs are outlined and 
cut. 

The furniture will be so pretty when it is 
finished, and if the little girl who made it has 
worked neatly, and accurately, and carefully, it 
will be exactly as durable as any toy furniture 
which one may buy. 



THE PLAY HOUSE LARDER 

MOTHER said that you could not carry 
crackers, or cake, or anything really and 
truly edible up to your play room. It seems to 
you rather too bad for you have a little round 
table, and some chairs to place around it big 
enough for a child and small enough for your 
dolls to sit in. You have, too, a most beautiful 
set of dishes with a meat platter, and deep dishes 
for vegetables, bread plates, and tea cups, all 
waiting to be filled with tea party things. But 
mother is quite right. There is a wee little lady 
mouse who lives in the play room wall and comes 
out at night if there has been a tea party in the 
afternoon in search of any crumbs that are left 
on the floor. Real things to eat are not half as 
nice as the play pantry things which a little girl 
can make all herself. What if one cannot eat 
those make-believe bits of food? The dolls will 
love to look at them and will like them just as 
much as crackers or cake; they will save you the 
possible headache that is caused by eating be- 
tween meals, and, best of all, the pies and turkey 

53 



54 GIRLS' iMAKE-AT-HOiME THINGS 

and doughnuts and vegetables that you make will 
last for ever so many tea parties, and not for just 
one day. 

The best material for use in making play food 
stuff for your tea party is plasticine, a kind of 
prepared clay that comes in a dull red color and 
is just the same shade as a nicely roasted turkey, 
or a browned loaf of bread. If you are very pa- 
tient and sweet when mother refuses you a real 
tea party, there isn't a doubt but that she will 
buy you a pound of plasticine and then you may 
begin at once making pies, and doughnuts and 
cakes and ever so many other tea party delica- 
cies with which to fill your play house larder. 

An old slate is a very satisfactory modelling 
board if you hold it in your lap. You may begin 
making biscuits and doughnuts which are very 
simple indeed to shape. Take a bit of plasticine 
as large as your two thumbs and roll it between 
the palms of your hands until it is just as round 
and smooth as a marble. Then lay it on the slate 
and press it softly with your thumb, making it 
the shape of a tea biscuit, and then mark the top 
of each little biscuit with a doll's fork, lay them 
carefully in a dolls' tin baking tin and put them in 
the oven of your little stove to bake while you 
make the doughnuts. The doughnuts are made 



THE PLAY HOUSE LARDER 55 

of little rolls of plasticine. Break off pieces the 
same size as those which you used for the bis- 
cuits, roll them between your thumb and fore- 
finger and join the ends very smoothly and with- 
out any cracks. This makes a plateful of brown, 
hard little crullers that are warranted not to give 
a doll indigestion because no doll would ever 
attempt to eat one. They look too pretty on the 
tea table. 

Pies come next in this delightful baking, and 
you will never want to stop making them because 
it is such fun. Select as many dolls' plates as 
you want to have pies. Line each one with plas- 
ticine, just as you have watched mother spread 
her pie crust. You will need to roll out a piece of 
plasticine quite thin with a toy rolling pin, lay it 
over the dolls' plate and then, holding the plate 
up in one hand, trim off the crust with a dolls' 
knife held in the other. When this clay crust is 
neatly trimmed off, crimp the edges of the pie 
just as mother does hers. Circles of colored 
paper fitted into the center of the clay pie will 
give it almost any flavor that you wish. A cen- 
ter of bright red paper shows that it is a cherry 
pie, and if you cut very narrow strips of manilla 
paper and paste them across the top, it will give 
your pie the effect of raspberry or cranberry tart. 



56 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

A circle of yellow paper transforms a clay pie 
into a lemon pie and a circle of orange makes a 
pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving Day. 

The Thanksgiving turkey is a little more diffi- 
cult to make, but he can be molded, neverthe- 
less. Select a lump of plasticine as large as 
your fist, and, laying it on your slate, punch and 
pound and smooth it into the form of the tur- 
key's body. At one end model his neck and 
pinch the clay at the top to form his breast bone. 
Two meat skewers stuck in his body make the 
foundation for his legs, and on these you can 
mold and shape lumps of clay until he has two 
very realistic drumsticks. If you want your 
turkey to look as if he came from a caterer's, 
fringe some narrow strips of stiff white paper 
and wind them about his drumsticks. When 
you have made a long square loaf of bread and 
some little round clay cakes in your tiny patty 
pans, your plasticine is all used up, and you 
are ready to try a new way of making play eat- 
ables. 

You will need some play vegetables in your 
larder. Get out your sewing basket and make 
a number of little cheesecloth bags. When 
these are stitched very carefully so there will be 
no danger of ripping, take them outdoors and fill 



THE PLAY HOUSE LARDER 57 

some with round brown pebbles which you can 
use for doll's potatoes, and others with the very 
tiniest of the green apples that fall from the trees 
in early summer. In addition to these, you will 
be able to make some very pretty vegetables for 
your larder if you have some cotton batting, and 
a sheet each of red, green, and orange tissue 
paper. 

Tiny radishes are made by making little balls 
of cotton batting for a foundation and covering 
them with red tissue paper. The paper is pasted 
down the side, twisted at the base, and at the top 
some leaves cut from the green tissue paper can 
be wound in with a length of thread. Play car- 
rots have for their foundation little rolls of cot- 
ton batting, covered with orange tissue paper. 
Before you put the paper covering on, draw a 
few black lines on the paper to indicate the 
markings' on the carrot, and after the carrot is 
covered, attach some green tissue leaves. A 
beautiful pumpkin for your play pantry is made, 
too, on a cotton foundation. Shape a flattened 
ball of cotton batting and cover it with a circle 
of your orange tissue paper. If you sew the 
paper most carefully, it will be possible to gather 
the tissue paper about the top of the cotton foun- 
dation and then tack it right down through the 



58 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

cotton. A stem of twisted green tissue paper 
glued to the top completes the pumpkin. 

A^^hen you have finished all these play vegeta- 
bles, the biscuits and pies that you made will be 
baked and the turkey will be roasted. You can 
set the doll's party table with more nice things 
to eat than you could ever have found in cook's 
pantry even if mother had been willing to let you 
have real things to eat, and best of the whole 
play will be this, you will be hungry, oh, so hun- 
gry for the supper of bread and milk that mother 
brings you, by and by, because you have had such 
a good time playing, and have not eaten anything 
"between meals." 



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DOLLS HIGH-BACKED CHAIR MADE OF A SHOE BOX 




Chair, licvl. Tools. Wagon, I'arn 



TEAS WORK 



PEAS CRAFT 

THE peas that grew in the garden during the 
summer will furnish play material for ever 
so many shut-in days in the fall and winter. All 
kinds of quaint little toys may be constructed 
with them which will be very realistic and dur- 
able, and will teach you as you make them how 
to use your fingers, skillfully and patiently. 

Dried peas will be best to use for this attract- 
ive, new craft work. Half a pint, enough to 
make ever so many toys, should soak for a day 
in tepid water, after which they will be soft and 
pliable and ready to work with. A kindergarten 
supply shop will furnish, for ten cents, a package 
of slender, hardwood sticks that may be used 
to fasten the peas together, but if a little girl 
lives in the country where she is not able to buy 
these sticks, she may use toothpicks, instead. 
They will be even better for the craft work than 
the regular peas sticks, because they are pointed 
at the ends. 

Unless one is very careful in joining two peas 
with a stick they will split. Each pea will show 

59 



6o GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

very plainly after it has been soaked a tiny black 
spot on one end, and this indicates the place 
where a stick should not be thrust in the pea be- 
cause it will come exactly between the two sec- 
tions and the pea will break. Put the stick 
through the pea crosswise and then when it dries 
the stick will hold it firmly and prevent its split- 
ting. 

Now we are ready to make all the toys shown 
in the picture and as many others as one wishes 
to invent. The little barn will be a simple toy 
to make first. Four sticks of equal length should 
be joined by means of four peas at the corners, 
one of the sticks having two peas slipped on in 
the middle before the joining is done to hold the 
door supports. The square is then laid flat on 
a table and four sticks are stuck in upright at 
the corners to indicate the barn walls. The 
ridge pole of the roof is then made of a stick the 
same length as the others with a number of peas 
slipped on. Short sticks of equal length are 
then thrust in these peas at right angles to the 
ridge pole forming a roof. The edges of the 
roof are formed by long sticks thrust through 
exactly the same number of peas as were put on 
the cross pole and fastened to the four uprights. 
The short sticks which formed the roof are then 



PEAS CRAFT 6i 

stuck in these peas on the side. The door is 
made with two short upright sticks and a short 
one for the top, joined by peas. The barn will 
be very serviceable and attractive when it is 
finished and much more convenient for toy ani- 
mals than a real toy barn, because there will be 
plenty of room for the cows and horses to walk 
out and in without bumping their heads. 

There should be a little farm wagon to go with 
the barn. The bottom of the wagon is made 
with crosspieces to keep the hay from falling 
through. Two long sticks with four or five peas 
slipped on are joined by shorter sticks. The 
sides of the wagon are formed by four short up- 
rights and two long sticks joining them at the 
top on either side. The wheels are made of 
cardboard with peas for hubs and are fastened 
to the wagon by pins. The shafts are just two 
long sticks put in the front of the wagon. 

Farm tools will be found very easy to make. 
An oblong, made of four peas and four sticks 
with a longer stick fastened on for a handle will 
serve well for a spade. A short stick thrust 
through a number of peas will form the founda- 
tion for a rake, the teeth being made of very 
short sticks of equal length stuck in these peas. 
A long handle, similar to that used for the spade 



62 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

completes the little tool. A clever little girl will 
be able to make a hoe and a wheelbarrow, too, 
perhaps. 

Dolls' furniture made of peas is almost if not 
exactly as pretty as real, grown-up wicker furni- 
ture. The bottom of a doll's bed is made like the 
wagon bottom, the short crosspieces forming the 
slats of the bed. Four very tiny sticks having 
peas stuck on the ends for casters are fastened to 
the corners of the bed to form its legs. The 
head of the bed has a solid row of peas on the 
cross stick as has also the foot, and the head and 
foot are fastened to the lower part of the bed 
by long and short sticks. 

A dolls' chair is not difficult to construct after 
a child has learned how to make the tiny bed. 
The seat of the chair is square, the back has a 
solid row of peas at the top and a bar in the 
center so the penny doll will not fall through 
when she leans back. The legs have peas at the 
ends for standards and, if one wishes, the chair 
rounds may be added, although they are not nec- 
essary. 

In addition to this furniture, a very charming 
little table may be made, and a sofa in exactly 
the same fashion. 

In making the toys the sticks should always be 



PEAS CRAFT 63 

thrust well into the body of the pea. When the 
peas harden, the sticks will be held firmly in place 
and the toys will be splendidly durable. 

In addition to making toys, a little girl will 
love to get out her work bag and with a coarse 
needle and some strong linen thread string long 
necklaces from the soaked peas for her own wear 
and for the dolls. Peas are almost as pretty as 
glass beads for necklaces and they will not break 
as beads do so often. 

You will surely decide to plant a whole garden 
full of peas next summer, since we have discov- 
ered their delightful play possibilities. 



POTATO PATCH FUN 

THERE is a big, jolly family of Potato 
People buried down under the ground in 
the potato field. They don't like being buried, 
either, and when the farmer thrusts his fork deep 
down in the earth and feels all around with it to 
find the hard, brown lumps of toothsomeness, out 
they pop, blinking their funny potato eyes in the 
sunlight and smiling up at the children who are 
going to play with them. 

Now what shall we do first to help change 
these jolly little potato folks into real, funny 
dolls? 

We will not need to alter their queer little faces 
much. Any child will be able to find a whole 
bunch of queer little dolls' heads by looking over 
a pile of freshly dug potatoes. They may need 
to have their faces washed — ^but so do children — 
and if they need mouths, one slit made with a 
jack-knife will suffice. They never need to have 
eyes made. Almost every potato that ever was 
dug has two funny, smiling, merry eyes if only a 
child's eyes are sharp enough to find them. 

65 



66 CilllLS' MAKK-AT-HOMK THINGS 

Once llic potatoes with the nuxst comical faces 
have been selected, a child may hci;"in the fun of 
trans form in^' them inl(^ funny d(^ll playfellows. 

11ie oldest members o\' the Potato T'amily are 
the Indians who discoxered the Potato Patch, 
])robably, and li\ed there lorn;- before the children 
knew anNthim;- alxnit them. Tc^ make a F^otato 
Indian, look for that loni;-, speckled feather that 
^\v^. C^vhin China, the hen, dropped in the 
chicken }ard the otlier day. With the smallest 
blade o\ youv i)enknife or with a meat vskewer 
make a hole in the top ot" the p(^tato and stick the 
feather in this hole. There, the Potato Indian 
is finislied. It will be e\er so jollv to make a 
whole tribe ot" PiMato Indians. Stand them up 
on the i^arden wall and see how man^' you arc 
able to sho(M \\ ith xonr bmv and arrows. 

The ( irand lather and ( Iranilmother Potato are 
the oldest settlers o\ the Potato Patch and it was 
they. \ery likely, who drcne (Uit the Indians and 
made o\ the Patch the pleasant, peacel'nl place 
that it is to-(la\'. '\\) make the (irandfather and 
( irandmother, select two wiankled potati^ heads 
and pin them by means o\ meat skewers t(^ lari;"er. 
Ioniser potatoes that make the bodies. Scraps of 
brown denim make the ( irandtather's suit which 
ma\- be pinned to his bodw llis shirt is just au 




(a) GRANUl'A AND GRANDMA ROSE 

(b) ten I.ITTLE INDIANS 

Co/^yiigJit, 1900, by Belle Johnson 



POTATO PATCH FUN 67 

oblong piece of white cotton cloth wrapped 
around his potato body and pinned at the back, 
and his collar is a strip of white paper pinned in 
front with a large headed pin that looks like a 
collar button. The Grandmother wears a blue 
calico dress with a full skirt, a white muslin fichu 
and a flopping white cap made, also, of muslin. 
All her clothing is securely pinned to her body 
for she has no feelings at all. 

Some pleasant day in vacation when the black- 
birds are flying over the Patch and singing, and 
the wind is rustling the cornstalks in the next 
field, the Potato Children come to visit their 
Grandfather and Grandmother. 

Such funny Children as they are! There are 
the little boy twins, . Patsy and Tommy Potato, 
who wear their best white sailor suits and their 
white sailor hats with streamers. To make Patsy 
and Tommy you will need to fasten two potato 
heads to two potato bodies as you did when you 
made the Grandfather and Grandmother, but the 
potatoes which you select for their bodies should 
be shorter and fatter than those used for their 
grandparents. Make the Potato Boys' suits of 
scraps of white duck or flannel with stripes of 
narrow blue cambric sewed to the edge of the 
sailor collars. Stiff white paper will make their 



68 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

hats — a circle for the rims and a cyHndrical roll 
pinned to the top of each potato to make the 
crowns of the hats. They are a merry, mis- 
chievous pair, are Patsy and Tommy Potato, 
always ready for any sort of fun. 

The Rosebuds come next. They are little girl 
twins, the favorite Potato grandchildren in the 
eyes of their grandparents. The Rosebuds have 
bodies and heads like those of Patsy and Tommy, 
but they like to wear frocks cut low neck, and 
having short sleeves, so you will need to make 
them arms, which was not necessary in the case 
of their brothers. For the Rosebuds' arms, cut 
long, thick potato parings, bringing one end of 
each to make fingers. Then pin these arms to 
the potato bodies. The Rosebuds' dresses are 
made of red calico having white polka dots. 
They are cut straight and full with a wide hem 
in the bottom and slits for the Rosebuds' arms to 
go through. Narrow strips of the same cloth as 
the dress tie the dresses over the shoulder. The 
Rosebuds wear no hats for they are not one bit 
afraid of the sun's hurting their complexion. 

All summer long the Potato children and their 
grandparents will play with you in the garden. 
You can make a little tea table for them of an 
inverted cardboard box on which you can spread 



POTATO PATCH FUN 69 

all manner of feasts, delicious for a Potato 
Family. One large leaf will make the tablecloth 
and smaller leaves will serve for napkins. The 
eatables for the Potato Family's tea parties may 
be tiny green cheeses, little green apples, a few 
huckleberries and blackberries served on the 
dolls' second best set of china dishes. 

Some day, though, the Potato Children's vaca- 
tion will be over and it will be time for them to 
go to school and learn all there is to know about 
growing up into old Potatoes like their Grand- 
father and Grandmother. It will be just exactly 
as much fun for you to have the Potatoes go to 
school as it was to let them play at having tea 
parties. To have a fine, large class of Potatoes 
you will need to make ever so many more chil- 
dren, both Potato boys and Potato girls. This 
will give you many pleasant afternoons for sew- 
ing for all the children will need new school 
clothes. School may be held in one corner of 
your piazza with an old geography opened at a 
map page and standing up behind the teacher. 
A Potato doll dressed up as a dunce will make 
the school livelier. 

Hurrah for this Potato Patch fun! 




(a) twin rosebuds 

(p.) the twin potato boys 

Copyright, 1900, by Belle Johnson 





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(a) necklace made of corn and IVEANS; ACORN NECKLACE 

(b) poppy flower CHAIN 

(C) NECKLACE MADE OF BEANS OF CONTRASTING COLORS 



TEN NECKLACES 

THERE never was a little girl yet who did 
not love to "dress up," whether she lived in 
the town or in the country. It is fun to wear 
mother's apron tied on at the back and trailing 
along the ground for a train. It is fun to dress 
up in grandmother's shawl, but the greatest fun 
of all is to wear a necklace. The city child can't 
do that sort of dressing up very often. City 
mothers' necklaces are too fine for little girls to 
wear, but it is very different in the country. 
There a child may string as many chains as she 
likes. She may have a necklace for almost every 
month in the year. They grow on bushes in the 
country — do necklaces. 

Listen, and you shall learn how to make ten. 

The prettiest necklaces of all grow in the sum- 
mer, and they are daisy chains. You may braid 
the long stems of the daisies and make the 
chains that way, or you may use just the blos- 
soms and string them together on a long, white 
thread. 

Then there are lilac bloom necklaces. The 

71 



^2 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

lilac blooms are made up of so many tiny flowers. 
Take a fine needle, threaded double, with white 
thread, and string these tiny lilac blooms; white 
ones, or purple ones, or purple and white alternat- 
ing. They make the daintiest sort of a necklace 
to wear in the summer time. The grown-up per- 
son who is writing about all these necklaces 
opened one of her books the other day, and there, 
between the leaves was an old, old string of lilac 
blooms. It had grow^n quite yellow from being 
shut up so long, but it was a rather pretty sort of 
necklace, still. The grown-up person remem- 
bered a sunny day, once-upon-a-time when she 
sat in her grandmother's lap in a garden, way, 
way off; and her grandmother helped her make 
that lilac chain. And she almost wished, as she 
closed the book, that she could be a little girl 
again and make another string of lilacs. 

Summer doesn't last very long, but when it is 
over, there are the leaves to be made into chains. 
The smaller red and yellow maple leaves make 
the prettiest necklaces. They should be laid 
upon an ironing board, and pressed with a medi- 
umly hot flatiron which has some beeswax 
rubbed on. By pressing the leaves they keep 
their beautiful colors all winter, and they may be 
lapped one upon the other, and fastened together 



TEN NECKLACES ^^ 

with pins, or the leaf stems may be thrust through 
to fasten them. 

When Thanksgiving comes, a necklace of crim- 
son rubies may be made by stringing cranberries ; 
and a pop corn necklace will be almost as pretty 
as if it were made of pearls. 

If the little country girl knows where the 
ground was strewn with acorns in the woods last 
fall, and if she was a provident child and gathered 
a basket full, she may have a very charming 
acorn necklace. To prepare them for stringing, 
the acorns should be pierced with an awl through 
the cup end. If the nut is loosened from the cup, 
a drop of glue will hold it in place. Strong shoe 
thread should be used for stringing the acorns 
which are fastened by double stitches so that they 
will hang about an inch and a half apart, as seen 
in the illustration. A pendant for the necklace 
is made by stringing together four acorns and 
fastening them by a longer thread to the front of 
the chain. 

Kernels of yellow corn and the larger, flat, 
white melon seeds are most attractive material 
for a necklace. These seeds are too hard to be 
sewn through easily without soaking, but if they 
are allowed to lie for an hour in a cup of tepid 
water, and are then removed, and laid on a towel 



74 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

to dry, they will be found perfectly soft and pli- 
able to work with. Heavy white thread and a 
rather coarse needle will be needed to make the 
necklace. A melon seed is put on the thread 
first, the needle being put through its longest di- 
mension. Four kernels of corn are then strung, 
the thread being fastened in the first kernel to 
hold the four together, and then passed through 
a second melon seed. The melon seeds and the 
groups of corn kernels alternate until the neck- 
lace is completed. 

When flowers, and leaves, and seeds give out 
as materials for necklaces, a little girl who is deft 
with her fingers will be able to make some dainty 
chains of colored paper, plain and tissue. The 
morning glory chain has, for a foundation, very 
narrow strips of green paper pasted and inter- 
linked. The morning glories are made of an ob- 
long piece of white crepe paper, pasted together 
in cup fashion and ruffled at the edge to look like 
a real morning glory. Dashes of blue paint are 
put also on the flowers and they are pasted, to- 
gether with some circular leaves cut from the 
same green paper that was used for the links, to 
the chain. 

A holly necklace has the chain links cut in holly 
shape from green paper. They are fastened to- 



TEN NECKLACES 75 

gether by smaller links of narrow red crepe paper 
to which little circular berries made of red crepe 
paper are glued, covering and concealing the 
smaller links which join the holly leaves. 

Ten necklaces — but there are ten more for the 
sharp-eyed little country girl to find! 

The kernels of corn may be strung alone, alter- 
nating red kernels and white, or yellow kernels 
and red ones. The melon seeds may also be used 
alone. Dried peas, soaked as was the corn, look 
like real beads when they are made in a necklace ; 
and the many colored beans, red, and purple, and 
white, and black may be strung in the same way. 
Pine needles make a dainty chain. The very 
pointed end of the needle is thrust into the thicker 
end, forming a link. Another link is interlaced, 
and then another until a long green chain i§ 
finished. 

They are really countless necklaces instead of 
only ten for the clever little country girl. She 
may "dress up'' as gorgeously as any little prin- 
cess of fairy tale fame. 



RAFFIA WORK 

RAFFIA, once upon a time, used to be just 
plain, field grass of a specially long and 
tough variety. Then, someone discovered that 
when it was dried, it made fine, strong cord with 
which to tie bunches of flowers and leaves and 
ferns, so the flower man bought some of this 
raffia and kept a big bunch of it in his shop to use 
for string. Then, wonderful indeed, some other 
person found out that raffia wanted to play with 
a child. It wanted to be made by a child's fingers 
into all sorts of delightful things — napkin rings 
for the whole family, and a mat for father's desk, 
a picture frame for mother's picture, and a hat 
for the little girl's best doll. 

Since raffia really wants to make all these de- 
lightful things suppose we buy a pound and trans- 
form it into something pretty and useful. 

The florist will, doubtless, give a little girl a 
bunch of plain colored raffia, if she asks him for 
it very politely. Or, one may buy a pound of 
raffia at a kindergarten shop, where it comes spe- 
cially prepared and dyed in lovely colors, green, 

77 



y^ GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

or rose, or yellow, or blue. Then with a pair of 
scissors and a tapestry needle that is short and 
has a very long eye, a little girl is all ready to 
make these charming raffia things. 

First, the raffia will need to be soaked for a 
few moments in warm water to make it soft and 
pliable. Upon being taken from the w^ater it 
should be laid between two towels where it will 
be kept damp enough to be easily worked with, 
but not too wet. Now we are ready to make one 
of the napkin rings that is going to surprise the 
family some night at supper. A strip of card- 
board is cut an inch and a half wide and seven 
inches long, which is to be the foundation for the 
napkin ring. This strip is joined by a few 
stitches or a brass paper fastener, pushed through 
the two ends of the cardboard where they are 
lapped over each other. A wide strip of raffia is 
selected and it is passed under and over the card- 
board ring, winding it, and covering it until the 
end of the strip is reached. A second length of 
raffia is tied to the first and the weaving is con- 
tinued until the cardboard is covered completely, 
when the last end of the raffia is threaded into the 
needle and fastened on the under side of the ring 
where it will not show. In tying on new lengths 



RAFFIA WORK 79 

of raffia, the knots must be kept underneath the 
winding where they will not show. 

After the napkin ring is finished, one will be 
able to make, very easily, a cardboard picture- 
frame. The foundation for the frame is card- 
board also, an oval that measures five inches by 
four inches and which has a center hole where 
the picture will show, measuring three inches by 
two inches. The cardboard frame is then cov- 
ered with a winding of raffia just as the napkin 
ring was, and when this is finished, a stifif paper 
back is glued on to hold the picture in place. 
When a child has learned how to wind raffia 
neatly and with the greatest care, he is ready to 
begin braiding it, and the braid can be made into 
the mat to hold father's desk lamp, or his ink 
well, or a vase of the flowers that a child brings 
in from the garden. 

Six wide lengths of raffia are selected, knotted 
together, and pinned to a table or window ledge. 
Then the braiding is begun, using two lengths of 
the raffia for each strand that the braid may be 
quite wide. The braiding should be kept loose. 
If the raffia is pulled tightly, the braid will be 
twisted and thin. As the ends of the raffia are 
approached, a new length is slipped in and 



8o GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

braided with the others so that the joining;' does 
not show at all. \\'hen there is a line loni;- braid 
ready, perhaps a yard and a hall" lon<;-, the mat 
niav be beo-nn. The needle is threaded with a 
leni^th of raftia; then, holding" one end of the 
braid ilat, it is sewed ronnd and round with up 
and down stitehes, beini;' kept cjuite smooth and 
tlat. AX'hen the mat is as lari;e as one wishes it, 
the end of the braid is eut ott, and sewed neatly 
on the wrong* side of the mat to finish it. 

A best hat for the dc^ll, one that will eover her 
])retty enrls and keej) her eyes shaded from the 
sunshine, is made like the little mat, of a braid o\ 
raflia. This braid should be a trille finer, though, 
than the one that was used for the mat. Three 
wide strands of raffia may be braided, and when 
the braid measures two yards in length, the hat 
may be begun. The top of the erown is sewed 
with a needleful of fine raffia stripped from a 
wider strand and is made like the mat, in spiral, 
flat fashion imtil it is as wide as the doll's head. 
Then the braid must be drawn a little tighter and 
bent down, being sewed in this way until the 
crown of the hat is about two inches high. The 
rim is started by holding and sewing the braid 
more loosely, almost full, and continuing it until 
a broad, drooping rim is finished, llie end of 



RAFl JA WORK 8i 

the raffia braid is fastened underneath the last 
row of tlie braid and is sewed as was the end of 
the mat. 

A doll's hat of ^reen raffia will be so pretty if it 
is trimmed with a wreath of wliite everlastings, 
llie little live- forever flowers that a child may find 
in the fields if he has sharp eyes. The wreath is 
made by laying the flowers, one head and one 
stem together, and tying each with a bit of 
thread. When the wreath is long enough, it is 
fastened to the crown of the hat by a bow of raf- 
fia. A hat of bright red raffia will be most be- 
coming for a doll with brown eyes and dark hair. 
One can buy a beautiful bright red shade of 
raffia. All this hat will need for trimming is a 
big red pompon made of the same material as the 
hat. To make the pompon, wind raffia thickly 
over a strip of cardboard two inches wide. Then 
slip it off, and sew it very securely through the 
center, leaving an end threaded to sew it to the 
hat. Snip the looped ends, and the little ball will 
fliuff itself out into a full ball which is sewed to 
the front of the hat. 

When a little girl has learned how to wind and 
braid raffia, she can, perhaps, make a long 
enough braid to sew into a big sun hat that 
mother or little sister will wear out in the garden. 



WHAT TO DO WITH AUTUMN LEAVES 

THE dictionary and the big atlas, and other 
every available book are full of them; the 
gorgeous tinted autumn leaves that you gath- 
ered and put between the book covers to press and 
keep. 

When the snow drifts, and the wind howls 
down the chimney, and play and games have lost 
their fascination, just take out this store of glori- 
ous leaves; maple, oak, and beech; red, orange, 
and soft toned brown in color and find some beau- 
tiful and artistic uses for them as a new kind of 
winter busy work. ■ 

To make a maple leaf keep its red color which 
reminds one of the red sunset that filled the sky 
that lovely fall afternoon when the leaf fell flut- 
tering down to the ground a child should give it 
a coating of wax. Mother's ironing board, her 
lump of parafiin, and one of her flatirons will 
be useful for waxing leaves. Cover the ironing 
board with a layer of newspapers that the wax 
may not penetrate to the ironing cloth and spoil 
it for mother's use. Lay the leaves on top of the 

83 



84 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

newspaper, right side up, and pass an iron on 
which has been ruhhed paraftin, over each leaf 
quickly. The flatiron should not be too hot, or 
it will scorch the leaf. Leaves coated in this way 
are glossy, tough, and what is l)est of all will 
keep their beautiful colors for a long, long time. 
With a table full of waxed leaves one is ready 
to make all sorts of pretty things. A little girl 
will delight in dressing up in colored leaves. 
Lay two leaves, one on top of the other, lapping 
a little way, that they may be fastened together 
with a pin, or a leaf stem which is snipped off 
with a pair of scissors. A stem is quite as secure 
a fastening and a very much prettier one than a 
pin. This way of lapping leaves and securing 
them is the foundation of all sorts of charming 
leaf costumes for little folks' play. A chain of 
leaves joined at the end forms a crown for a fairy 
king and queen. A longer chain of leaves can 
be hung around a little girl's neck and will trans- 
form her into a princess. A whole leaf dress can 
be made by pinning together long chains of leaves 
and fastening them to a child's waist in streamers 
that come as far as the knees. INIore leaf fes- 
toons are draped about the child's shoulders and 
wrists and arms. This lovely leaf dress changes 
a plain school frock into a costume fit for a fairy, 



AUTUMN LEAVES 85 

and the child who makes it some Saturday after- 
noon can play the Babes in the Wood, Brunhilde, 
The Sleeping Princess, or any other forest fairy 
tale. 

There are other delightful uses for waxed 
leaves. One never has enough picture frames, 
and tiny waxed maple or beech leaves make a 
lovely frame. Select dark green, or tan, or 
brown cardboard for the frame. Cut it square 
with an oval opening for the picture, or circular 
with a round opening. In cutting a round pic- 
ture frame, a saucer or a small plate makes an 
excellent pattern and a butter plate may be drawn 
around as the pattern for the inner circle where 
the picture will show. When the frame is cut, 
a child is ready to decorate it. The round frame 
may have very small red and yellow maple leaves 
glued about the edge. The square, or oblong 
frame has bunches of leaves at the corner, also 
glued on. When the leaves are in place, a paper 
back and a cardboard support by means of which 
it may stand upright, are glued to the back of the 
frame, a picture is inserted and the frame is put 
under a pile of books to press and dry. 

Waxed leaves make lovely calendars. A long, 
narrow strip of gray or tan cardboard is cut, and 
a calendar pad that one may buy for a few cents 



86 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

at the stationer's shop is mounted at the bottom 
of the cardboard. At the top a row of tiny 
waxed leaves is glued in an irregular line as if 
they were just fluttering down from a tree out 
in the woods. Two holes are punched in the 
upper edge of the calendar and a bit of gilt cord 
or ribbon is tied in by which to hang the calendar 
to the wall or father's desk. 

There is still another, and a most beautiful 
use to which you can put colored autumn leaves. 
Mounted on cartridge paper they make an artistic 
border for a room which has plain walls, or for 
the ugly plain space above the blackboard in a 
schoolroom. All sorts, and sizes, and kinds of 
leaves may be used for these borders but the 
effect will be better if leaves which follow out the 
same scheme of color are grouped on one border ; 
brown and gold oak leaves, or red and yellow 
maple leaves, or sprays of green maiden hair fern 
which may be waxed also, and make a most artis- 
tic border mounted on soft green or gray wall 
paper. 

To make a leaf wall border, find out first just 
how wide the wall space is which the border will 
cover. Then cut exactly the required width, as 
many strips of cartridge paper as will be needed 
to go around the walls. Lay these strips of paper 



AUTUMN LEAVES 87 

flat on a table and scatter the waxed leaves over 
them as they look on a windy day out in the woods 
when the air is full of their whirling, dancing 
shapes. Some thought will be required to make 
an artistic arrangement of leaves. They should 
be grouped, not placed in rows. A small leaf has 
a larger one next it, and some are mounted with 
the stems up, and others will be attractive ar- 
ranged with the stems down. As soon as the 
arrangement of the leaves is decided upon, each 
leaf is carefully glued in its place on the paper, 
and a flatiron, a paper weight, or a book is laid 
for a fev/ moments on top of each to keep it per- 
fectly flat and smooth. When all the strips of 
paper are covered with leaves the effect is more 
beautiful than a real, store designed wall paper. 
The leaves dry quickly, and each strip is pasted 
to the wall with the ends carefully matched, just 
as the paperer does his hanging. The leaf 
border will last for a year, and longer, a beauti- 
ful reminder of the woods and the wide out doors. 
Waxed leaves will make needlebooks and pen 
wipers; such attractive, different, pretty ones. 
Choose two large maple or beech leaves that are 
as nearly as possible the same size. Mount them 
with glue on a piece of thin green or dark red 
leather and then cut the leather close to the edge 



88 GIRLS' i\lAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

of the leaf, leaving the outline. These form the 
covers of a needlebook, and if the mounting is 
done securely, and the leaves were thoroughly 
coated with wax, they will make substantial and 
durable needlebook covers. Some patches of 
flannel are put between, the covers are tied to- 
gether with ribbons at the stem end of the leaves 
and the dainty needlecase is done. A pen wiper 
made of chamois in book form may have one or 
two waxed red ivy leaves mounted on the front 
for decoration, while the squares of chamois are 
tied together with a bit of red ribbon which just 
matches the color of the leaves. 

Who would have thought that there were so 
many beautiful and dainty uses for leaves? 
And one will be able to keep them until winter is 
over and trees and shrubs awake to burst into 
real leaves again. 



GARDEN GAMES 

A GAME that you play out in the garden or 
in a meadow, or a country lane is just twice 
as much fun as any indoor game. With the sun 
smiling down on you, with the fresh wind blow- 
ing your curls and your cap, and with no roof 
but the blue sky you can romp, and shout, and 
play to your heart's content. No one will stop 
you, and no one will say — *Uess noise, please." 

There are some simple home toys you can 
make in the house some rainy day, and take out 
doors when the spring comes to help you in your 
play. They are the queer, old-fashioned toys 
that our grandmothers and mothers played 
with when they were little; cup and ball, ring 
toss, grace hoops, and in addition you can make a 
Japanese kite and every one of them is made with 
home materials. 

First, the cup and ball. The ball is of w^orsted, 
made upon a cardboard foundation. Ask mother 
for a bit of stiff cardboard that has come to the 
house wrapped about a parcel. From the card- 
board cut two circles that measure two inches 

89 



90 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

across. In the center of each circle draw rings 
that measure about a half inch in diameter, cut 
out these circles together and with a needle wind 
worsted over the edge of the cardboard circles 
and in and out the center holes. 

When you have wound in so much worsted 
that the needle will not go through the center 
hole, unthread the needle, and holding the 
worsted covered circles in your left hand, cut the 
worsted at the edge with sharp pointed scissors; 
then holding the circles a little way apart, tie a 
strong thread firmly between them. When you 
tear away the cardboard circles a fluffy, round 
little ball remains, and if you trim it down about 
a quarter of an inch it will be firm, hard, and 
ready for your play. The cup in which you are 
going to try and catch this ball is just a five cent 
tin funnel, bright and shining in the tinsmith's 
window. You can buy it, or perhaps mother will 
give you one of her kitchen funnels. Knot a 
long coarse thread and draw it through the center 
of your ball, tying the end to the handle of the 
funnel. Then toss the ball as high in the air as 
the string will let it go and try to catch it in the 
funnel, a fine outdoor play. 

A ring toss outfit is delightfully easy to make. 
Find an empty wooden soap box, turn it bottom 



GARDEN GAMES 91 

side up, and saw the sides down to one-half their 
original height. This cutting down of the box 
may loosen it a bit so it will be a good plan to put 
a few more nails in the side to hold them firmly 
when the sawing is done. Next, saw a foot and 
a half length from a broomstick and glue it ex- 
actly in the center of the bottom of the box, which 
is the top of the game. 

Glue the sawed end, leaving the round finished 
end of the broom handle on top. When the glue 
has set, rub down the standard and box with 
sandpaper and paint both green with the kind of 
paint used for window blinds. The rings are 
embroidery hoops of graduated size wound with 
scarlet and green ribbons of narrow width. 
When the game is done, set the pole and box 
standard at the end of the garden path, and 
standing on the front steps see if you are able to 
throw every hoop over the broomstick. 

It was our grandmothers' mothers who named 
the game, grace hoops. They thought that 
tossing the gay little hoops up in the air from 
two crossed sticks and catching them again on 
one stick made a little girl agile and graceful. 
No doubt the motion does train muscles and the 
toy shops are selling very expensive sets of grace 
hoops and sticks now. They are not one bit nicer 



92 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

though than the set a child can make, all himself, 
at home. Cut six straight, lilac branches into 
lengths that measure two feet, each. Three 
make each wand with which the game is played, 
and they are w^ound loosely together with string. 
Over this tying, wind green raffia tightly, using 
wade strips which will bind the lengths of lilac 
boughs firmly together. Lilac branches, or wil- 
low make the hoops with which the game is 
played. The lengths should be straight, pliable, 
and about two and one-half feet in length. 
Curve each branch into hoop shape, and tie it 
with string or strong thread. Last, wind it 
smoothly and firmly with raffia, and the game is 
done. To play grace hoops, each child needs 
two wands and one hoop. Two players stand, 
facing each other, and quite a distance, say the 
length of the garden path, apart. Each child 
holds her grace hoop on her crossed wands, and, 
releasing the wands quickly tosses the hoop to 
her partner who must catch it with one of her 
wands and return it in the same way that it was 
tossed to her. Both hoops are kept in the air at 
once, and the game is ever so much fun. 

Japanese kites are always in the form of bats, 
or queer shaped birds or dragons. They are 
most fascinating toys as a child sees them in the 



GARDEN GAMES 93 

toy shop window, but you can make one all your- 
self very easily. Run down to the brook and 
gather some long pliable willow twigs with which 
to make the bird kite's skeleton. Two straight 
lengths will be needed, one about three feet long, 
and the other two feet long. Put the middle of 
the shorter stick across the longer one, one-third 
of the distance from the top. Then tie the two 
sticks firmly together at right angles to each 
other. Now, loop up each twig end, forming the 
body, head and wings of the bird, and tying them 
securely at the point where the first tying was 
done. Bright red tissue paper is going to cover 
this bird skeleton, but you must buy a tough, firm 
quality of paper that will not tear easily. Coat 
the entire framework of the kite with glue, and 
then lay it carefully upon a sheet of this red 
paper. Cut the paper a distance of a half inch 
from the kite framework and roll over the edge 
in just the same way that mother rolls a rufile 
hem. The paper will stick to the glued frame- 
work, and this makes a stifif, firm finish for the 
kite. On the right side of the kite mark the eyes, 
beak and wing feathers of a bird with India ink. 
This can be done with a piece of charcoal. Tie 
one end of a ball of light cord to the strong 
crosspiece of the kite, and it is finished, ready to 



94 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

fly over the fields and the fences, and as far as 
you can run with it. 

And when you have made one cup and ball, one 
ring toss game, one set of grace hoops, and one 
bird kite for yourself — go to work and make some 
of these outdoor games for the child next door 
who is not as clever with her hands as you are. 



FUN WITH PICTURE POST CARDS 

SUCH a crop of gaudy colored post cards as 
the vacation left in its wake! 

Post cards from the country, post cards from 
the seashore. Post cards from away across the 
ocean with pictures of the quaint scenes and 
queerly dressed little folks from these far away 
lands. Poor old Uncle Sam has been obliged to 
make himself double as many mail bags since 
the picture post cards came into fashion, and one 
wonders that he has not struck, but Uncle Sam 
is a jolly old fellow. He knows what a delight it 
is for a child to receive such very pretty mail — 
a gay picture from the person he loves with a 
cheery message right on the outside close to the 
color. So our long suffering Uncle Sam goes on 
dropping post cards in the mail boxes, and the 
friends keep right on sending more. Sometimes 
a little girl has as many as a hundred — and what 
shall she do with them? 

Of course every one thinks that the proper 
place for a picture post card is inside a neat, tidy, 
post card album. Shut in between two black 

95 



96 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

covers the post card has to stay and it never sees 
the world again after its journey in the mail train 
is over. A post card album is a very good place 
for very unusual post cards such as foreign ones, 
and those having pictures of very special places, 
but the ordinary picture post card doesn't care to 
be stuck in an album. What do you think it likes 
best of all ? Why, it likes to play. 

When the long, cloudy fall afternoons come, 
and vacation days are so far away, that one al- 
most forgets there ever were any, the little folks 
may gather in front of the nursery fire with scis- 
sors and paste and ruler and pencils — and, best 
of all, every one of the picture post cards that 
w^ants to play. 

First, one may build houses and castles and 
bridges with them on the hardwood floor. The 
foundation for the building will be the tent form 
that every child knows how to make with a box 
of dominoes or a pack of playing cards. But 
the forms one builds with picture post cards will 
be much prettier than any domino houses, as one 
piles tent upon tent carefully and skillfully. 

Next comes a whole dolls' house made of pic- 
ture post cards. The little post card screen in the 
picture shows how the walls of the dolls' house 
can be made. A long strip of cardboard or 



FUN WITH PICTURE POST CARDS 97 

heavy paper should be cut a Httle wider than the 
longest dimension of a post card. Some of the 
most attractive cards are then carefully pasted, 
side by side, on the strip of cardboard just a little 
distance apart to allow the cardboard to be bent. 
The finished screen may then be folded to form 
a little enclosure which one may easily use for a 
dolls' house if it be set up on the nursery table. 

The furnishings for the dolls' house can also 
be made of post cards. A little care should be 
exercised in selecting the most decorative cards 
for the furniture. The easiest piece to begin 
with is the little dolls' table shown in the picture. 
The top of the table is just a square cut from a 
Dutch post card, the square first being marked 
with ruler and pencil so that the picture on the 
card will come in the center of the table. The 
chair is a little more difficult to do, but not too 
difficult for a careful child. The end of a post 
card which has two little Dutch figures is selected 
for the back of the chair, the top being cut out to 
show the two little heads, and the bottom of the 
card is bent up in a quarter inch flap to fasten 
it to the seat. The seat is cut to fit the back from 
a scrap of a windmill scene that decorated the 
same post card, and it is glued to the back. Four 
of the kindergarten sticks are glued on for the 



98 GIRLS' i\lAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

chair legs which will make it quite strong enough 
to hold a tiny doll. A desk for the post card 
house can be made in the same way as the chair, 
save that more of the picture on the card may 
show. 

In place of the kindergarten sticks, toothpicks 
may be used for the furniture supports. By 
piercing holes in the cards with a coarse needle 
or embroidery stiletto, the toothpicks may be in- 
serted and, although not quite as strong as 
kindergarten sticks, they will hold the parts of 
the furniture together very nicely. A little girl 
will be able to make all sorts of other doll furnish- 
ings with post cards, beds, dressers, and book 
shelves. 

A charming puzzle can be made of picture post 
cards. As many cards as one can spare are cut 
into pieces, either in strips, triangles, or after 
the manner of the perplexity puzzles. If one 
likes, the cards may be mounted on heavy board 
before they are cut so as to make the pieces 
stronger. After the cards have been cut, the 
pieces may be put in a box and the children who 
are playing the game may draw a certain number 
of them, trying to fit them together to form the 
original cards. The child who makes the most 
cards from the pieces wins a prize. 



FUN WITH PICTURE POST CARDS 99 

There are more picture post card plays, but 
with all these it remains for the children to guess 
the others. Who can think of something else to 
do with a picture post card that doesn't like a 
post card album, but just wants to play? 



BEAD NECKLACES 

GLASS and porcelain beads may be found at 
almost any shop where craft materials are 
kept. They cost very little, and come in strings 
of lovely color. The only other necessary ma- 
terials for bead craft are some coarse needles, 
and strong white thread. Dental floss is an ex- 
cellent thread for bead stringing as it never 
breaks. Coarse, white buttonhole twist is equally 
good. 

A daisy chain is a simple necklace to begin 
with as the beads are all strung on one thread. 
It is so dainty that a child will take great delight 
in making it. Some green, and white, and yel- 
low beads will be needed for the daisy chain. A 
needle is threaded with white floss or linen 
thread, and one bead is tied to the end of the 
thread to hold the rest, as a knot may slip 
through and spoil the chain. Sixteen green 
beads are then strung on the thread. Next, 
eight beads are strung which are to form the 
petals of the daisy. To shape the flower, the 
needle is slipped through the first white bead, a 

lOI 



I02 GIRLS^ MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

yellow bead is strung to indicate the center of 
the flower, and the needle is put through the fifth 
white bead. Now, if the thread is drawn rather 
tightly, the little bead flower will be complete. 
Sixteen more green beads are put on, and a sec- 
ond flower, the pattern being continued until the 
chain is finished. A number of color variations 
may be had. Yellow beads for the petals of the 
flower, and a black bead for the center will make 
a black-eyed-Susan instead of a white daisy. 
Pink beads with yellow centers will make a wild 
rose chain, and a forget-me-not chain may be 
made by using pale blue beads for the flower. 

The next step in our bead craft will be string- 
ing with two threads. Two rather long strands 
of floss are tied together at one end and a bead 
is tied in at the fastening. Each end of the floss 
is then threaded with a number five needle. 
Both needles and the threads are then passed 
through the beads. At the third bead, the 
threads are separated, and two beads are strung 
on each. The strands are brought together 
again and three beads are strung doubly as in 
the beginning. The double and single stringing 
is continued until the chain is finished. If pale 
green beads are used for the double stringing, 
and those of a darker shade for the single threads, 



BEAD NECKLACES 103 

a four leaf clover chain will be the result. Any 
soft contrasting tints may be combined with 
charming effect. 

As a variation of the double chain, seeds may 
be used with the beads. Melon seeds, if they are 
soaked for a few minutes in tepid water will be- 
come soft and pliable for craft work, and they 
are almost as strong, and quite as pretty as the 
beads themselves when they are used for a little 
girl's necklace. The seed necklace is started in 
the same way as the first double chain. There 
are two strands, fastened together at one end 
with a knot and one bead, and each is threaded 
with a coarse needle. Each strand is next 
strung with beads for a distance of perhaps two 
and one-half inches. Then one needle is passed 
through a melon seed, and the second needle also, 
the seed being pushed up close to the two strings 
of beads, and fastening them together. The 
strands are separated again, and each is strung 
with exactly as many beads as before. A second 
seed is strung, and the chain is continued in this 
way until it is long enough for the small girl's 
neck. 

A chain made almost entirely of watermelon 
seeds, strung together with beads is a trifle more 
difficult to do, but it will be very dainty when it is 



I04 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

finished. Two threads will be needed for this 
necklace also, and two needles. A bead is tied 
to the end of each thread and the two threads 
are laid on a table or in one's lap, side by side. 
Five beads are then strung on the thread at the 
right and the needle at the left is passed through 
these five beads, and the thread is drawn up 
tightly. A melon seed is then strung on each 
thread. Five more beads are put on the strand 
at the left, and the opposite needle is passed 
through the five making a square. More seeds 
are strung, and more beads are put, alternately, 
on the threads, the opposite needle being passed 
through them always until the chain is the re- 
quired length. 

If the little girl who is adept in bead craft lives 
in the country, she may gather sweet grass and 
use it with the beads for her necklaces. Three 
strands of the grass may be braided for a dis- 
tance of a few inches. They are then separated 
and each is strung with a pale green, or a pink 
crystal bead. The strands are then brought 
together and braided the same distance as be- 
fore, and more beads are added. When the 
chain is finished the ends of the sweet grass 
should be t^ed securely together. 

When the small craftswoman is able to make 




NECKLACES MADE OF BEADS AND SEEDS 






PAINTED r.ORDEKS FOR THE DOLI>S HOUSE 



BEAD NECKLACES 105 

all these chains, she will find that she can invent 
some new styles in necklaces for herself. She 
will discover the way to string new bead flowers. 
She will be able to copy the real flower colors in 
her bead work. She will have a necklace for 
every day in the week, and one for Sunday, too, 
perhaps, to wear with the best white Sunday 
frock. 



WHAT A BOX OF PAINTS WILL DO 

A CHILD'S box of paints usually does ex- 
actly what it should not; it daubs itself 
and everything else, including pinafores, blouses, 
and fingers. It mixes its colors in very strange 
ways, and dirties its cover, and leaves its brushes 
all thick and full of color when it finishes with 
them. But this is really not the way that a box 
of paints likes to play. It only daubs and is un- 
tidy because a child does not help it properly to 
make beautiful things. 

Listen, and you shall find out just what won- 
derful things a box of paints will do if you only 
give it a chance. 

The best kind of paint box to buy is one made 
of tin, and it holds eight cakes of soft, water color 
paints; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, 
black, and brown. The first six colors are the 
bright colors that the rainbow gives us, and with 
the brown and black paint they can be made 
darker if one wishes. A tin box containing 
these eight cakes of paint costs only twenty-five 
cents at a Kindergarten shop, and as soon as a 

107 



io8 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

cake of paint is used up another one in a little tin 
pan may be bought to replace it for three cents. 
A long handled, thick, Japanese brush is the best 
to use, and may be bought for five cents. 

With a pad of white water color paper, a cup 
of clean water, and a soft cloth for wiping the 
brush after it has been washed, a little girl is 
ready to go to work, painting. 

First, one must learn how to put on a wash. 
That doesn't mean really washing, but just 
covering a space on a sheet of paper with paint 
smoothly, and neatly, so that it will be just the 
same color all over. Select a rather large sheet 
of paper and fasten it by means of thumb tacks 
at the corners to a drawing board. Dip the 
brush in the pan of water and then fill it full of 
paint by rubbing it gently round and round on 
one of the cakes of paint; green, perhaps, and 
then you can use the finished sheet to paper the 
walls of a dolls' house. 

In filling the brush with paint, and in painting, 
too, be careful not to flatten the brush. Keep it 
pointed, and then it will do very much better 
work. 

When the brush Is ready, holding it up almost 
straight, begin covering the paper with paint, 
drawing the brush back and forth with long. 



A BOX OF PAINTS 109 

steady strokes, and trying not to let it show 
where one stroke ends and the other begins. As 
soon as the paint in the brush gives out, fill it 
full again and continue painting until the paper 
is covered. It will take quite some practice be- 
fore one is able to put on a wash well, but once 
this is learned one will be on the road to fame as 
a little artist, because it is the first thing that a 
real painter learns how to do. 

The soft, green washed paper may be cut the 
right size and pasted to the walls of a dolls" 
house, making very attractive wall covering. At 
the top of the paper there may be a painted bor- 
der, made also with the little box of paints. 
Making water color borders is the next step in 
learning to paint after a child has grown skilled 
in putting on a wash. 

There are so many pretty patterns you can use 
as a unit of design. For a border, the unit is the 
figure which you draw on a narrow strip of paper 
and repeat over and over again at equal spaces 
until the border is long enough to go around the 
top of a doll's room. 

A three-leafed clover is a simple border design 
for a child to draw himself, and paint. A penny 
will help in making the leaves quite round. Lay 
the penny down on a strip of paper and draw 



no GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

three circles that overlap a little at the center. 
A row of these clover leaves makes a lovely bor- 
der for the dolFs room, whose walls you covered 
with the green painted wall paper. Each clover 
after it is drawn is filled in carefully with green 
paint. If you know how to draw brownies, you 
can paint a brownie border. Draw the nicest 
brownie you can as the unit in your border. Lay 
a sheet of tracing paper over him, and with a soft 
pencil draw the little man's outline. Transfer 
the outline to the strip of paper that you are going 
to use for your border by retracing it, and draw 
ever so many brownies in a row on the border. 
You can have ever so much fun painting the 
brownies. Some may have red coats and jackets 
and brown trousers, some can be dressed in 
orange and brown, and others will be very gay in 
suits of red and green. 

Another way to make a border is to try and 
sketch your own unit of design instead of tracing 
it. Just look out of the window and you will see 
ever so many things that you will be able to copy, 
and then fill in the outline with a dainty water 
color wash. The leaf that the wind has just 
pulled from a tree and sent fluttering down to the 
sidewalk is very easy to draw, and it can be col- 
ored a beautiful red, or yellow, or brown. A 



A BOX OF PAINTS in 

yellow dandelion may be repeated on a border, or 
a black and yellow daisy, or a pansy, all of which 
are flowers that any child can draw. A simple 
outline of a bunny with a short tail and a pair of 
fine, long ears makes a very artistic border for a 
dolls' house room and looks like the pictures the 
little Japanese children like to paint. 

When you have learned how to make borders, 
you can begin painting dainty cards to send to 
some other child who has a birthday. Mother 
will buy you a sheet of water color paper from 
which to cut the cards. One sheet of this paper 
should make as many as two dozen cards if it is 
cut carefully. In the corner of each card, draw 
or trace from a picture book a figure of a toy, or 
an animal, or a flower, or your precious Noah's 
Ark. Then fill it in with color, smoothly and 
carefully with the same steady brush strokes you 
learned when you first began putting on a wash. 
In the plain space of the card letter, neatly, the 
child's name to whom you are going to give it, 
and it is done. 

A long, narrow strip of the water color paper 
can be decorated with paints and used for a cal- 
endar back. Paint a long, brown twig across the 
upper part of the card using the point of the 
brush. At the end and sides of the twig and 



112 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

fluttering away from it down the paper, paint, 
free hand, some Httle red leaves. At the long 
edge of the card paste a tiny calendar pad and 
hang the calendar to the wall over father's desk 
by a length of red ribbon. 

There are just two or three rules for the little 
artist to remember and then she will soon become 
expert in the art of brush and color work. 
Always hold the brush lightly so as to secure 
freedom of stroke. Take long strokes, begin- 
ning at the top of the paper and moving from side 
to side slowly downward. Have plenty of water 
on the brush so the color will not dry before a 
stroke is finished and spoil the neatness of the 
painted surface; and always wash a brush thor- 
oughly, drying it on a soft cloth before using 
another color. 



WORK BASKET TREASURES 

GRANDMOTHER'S big sewing basket 
stands in the corner of her room, full to the 
brim and running over with all sorts of delightful 
things, big and little spools, buttons of every size 
and color, flat, wooden button molds and pins, 
long, short, fat, and thin. 

Grandmother sews almost all day long. She 
begins when the sun shines in through her white 
curtains and over the gay red geraniums in the 
window box. She keeps on mending the stock- 
ings and patching the holes and darning the tears 
until the sun is ready to go to bed and drops his 
big yellow head down behind the orchard. 

If you put your little red chair by grand- 
mother's big yellow rocking chair, and help her as 
much as you can, threading needles, and picking 
up scraps from the floor, and finding grand- 
mother's spectacles when she loses them, she will 
give you some of her work basket treasures. 
Empty spools and buttons and even pins make 
fine playthings if you only know how to use 
them. 

113 



114 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

Small, empty spools make the most fascinating 
little dolls' trees. Paint as many as grandmother 
has used the twist from green with your paint 
box. They may need two coats of paint for the 
wood of the spool is soft and absorbs the paint. 
When you have succeeded in making them 
bright green, stick a burnt match in the hole of 
each empty spool. Cut long, narrow strips of 
green tissue paper and fringe them with grand- 
mother's embroidery scissors. Wind each burnt 
match with one of these strips of paper and glue 
it. You will have made a number of pretty little 
green shade trees to set in rows along the win- 
dow sill. It is a tiny boulevard now, instead 
of a window sill and a doll may walk along it 
between the trees that line the street on either 
side. 

A very fat, long spool that grandmother's 
basting thread came on, makes a road roller for 
your play boulevard. If you have a Noah's Ark, 
one of the wooden horses will be just the right 
size to draw this spool road roller. If you 
haven't a little wooden horse, two animal cracker 
horses fastened together in a span by means of a 
long pin will do finely for this play road work. 
Tie a length of coarse thread through the spool 
and fasten the horses to the end. You can pull 



WORK BASKET TREASURES 115 

the spool road roller back and forth along the 
window sill street and roll it down into fine con- 
dition for the little carriage that is to take the 
paper dolls out for an airing in the sun and be- 
tween the lines of spool trees. 

It is to be a two-wheeled trotting sulky. Two 
of the big button molds like those that grand- 
mother covered with blue cloth and sewed on 
your new coat make the wheels of the cart. On 
each button mold paint bright red or green 
spokes so that they will look like real wheels ; or 
they may be painted all over some bright color. 
When the paint has dried, find a coarse, strong 
wooden toothpick and stick each end in one of 
your button mold wheels. Cut an empty thread 
box in half, crosswise, and glue it to the tooth- 
pick axle, making the body of the little sulky. 
Two more toothpicks make the shafts of the 
wagon and a bit of cardboard from the other half 
of the box makes the seat. 

Four button molds having halves of burnt 
matches whittled down to points and inserted in 
the holes for axles form the wheels of a little 
farm wagon that will bring the dolls in from the 
country, and along the window sill boulevard. 
The body of the wagon is a whole empty spool 
box, into the sides of which the free ends of the 



ii6 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

whittled matches that hold the wheels are in- 
serted. 

At the end of the window sill you can build a 
spool elevator. A very long, narrow box placed 
on end, makes the shaft of the elevator. Near 
the top on each side punch a hole. These holes 
should be opposite each other. Through an 
empty thread spool thrust a meat skewer or a bit 
of reed such as is used to make baskets. Insert 
this in the holes of the box elevator shaft so that 
the spool will act as the upper wheel of the ele- 
vator and form a pulley. A small box makes the 
elevator. In each of the sides, holes are punched 
and strings of equal length are tied in the holes, 
and knotted together at the top. A string, as 
long as the elevator shaft is high, is then tied to 
the four knotted strings that suspend the elevator 
and the other end is carried over the pulley. The 
spool can be revolved by pulling one end of the 
string and in this way the box elevator is pulled 
up and down the shaft. 

All the paper dolls who have driven the length 
of the window sill boulevard in the button mold 
sulky or the farm sulky may pile into the spool 
elevator and be lifted up so high that they can see 
out of the upper sash of the window and over the 
garden — a wonderful view for dolls. 



WORK BASKET TREASURES 117 

What can you do with the stray pins and 
needles in grandmother's work basket? Oh, so 
many things! But the nicest of all is to make 
them into hat pins and breastpins for dolls. A 
large darning needle from which grandmother 
just broke the eye will make a pin to fasten on a 
doll's picture hat. Take one of the red candles 
that was left from your birthday cake. Melt it 
in the flame from the fireplace and then roll it into 
ball shape on the end of the broken end of the 
darning needle, making the head of the hat pin. 

Grandmother will surely be surprised to see all 
these wonderful play treasures that came out of 
her work basket; trees, road rollers, wagons, an 
elevator, and doll jewelry. You see she did not 
know that they were hiding there. 



WORSTED PLAYTHINGS FOR THE 

BABY 

WHAT shall we give baby to play with ? He 
loves toys just as much as you do, but he 
does not understand yet just how to play. He 
wants to throw his playthings upon the floor. 
He would like to squeeze them because he loves 
them so dearly. He would even like to chew 
them. He has probably been surfeited with 
rubber dolls and animals. Why not make him 
some gay worsted toys that will be unbreakable, 
and may be squeezed, and even chewed without 
any material damage resulting? 

They are so simple that the smallest sister can 
make them. In addition to giving the baby de- 
light, they will furnish the other children with 
fascinating busy work for many days. 

Germantown worsted is most satisfactory to 
use in this work. It is coarse enough to be easily 
handled without knotting, and the finished play- 
things will be large and soft for the baby to hold 
and cuddle. Several skeins of Germantown will 
be needed, in the rainbow colors, and black and 
white. A large bone crochet hook should be pur- 

J19 



I20 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

chased also, and some scraps of baby ribbon will 
be found useful. 

We will begin the baby's gifts with some 
charming worsted dolls. 

A simple doll for a little girl to make is a 
worsted baby. A whole skein of white German- 
town worsted is tied tightly in the center with 
strong white thread. Holding it by the center 
where it was tied, the ends are brought together 
and the skein is again tied tightly a distance of 
two and one-half inches from the first tying, mak- 
ing the doll's neck. The ends of the worsted are 
then cut loose so that the baby appears to be 
dressed in a long, white gown. Some strands of 
the worsted are separated at each side and are 
braided from the neck for arms. These arms 
should be cut the required length and tied with 
thread to indicate the doll's wrists. A darning 
needle is threaded with black worsted and is used 
to make some long stitches in the doll's face to 
indicate the eyes, nose, and mouth. There 
should be a bow of blue wash ribbon for the doll's 
hair ribbon and some ribbon also tied around her 
neck. She will prove a splendid bedtime doll 
and she may also be fastened to the front, of the 
go-cart when the baby goes out for his daily 
airing. 



WORSTED PLAYTHINGS 121 

Black Germantown worsted is used to make a 
mammy doll who will look like the baby's own 
nurse. This doll's construction is identical with 
that of the baby doll, except that a third tying, 
three inches from her neck makes the belt of her 
waist. Stitches of white show the mammy's 
features. A square of red and white checked 
gingham is knotted about her head, and fastened 
with thread for a turban. The little girl sister 
can make a white apron with shoulder straps for 
the mammy, and the baby will have a lot of fun 
with his soft, black doll. 

All babies love rattles. A ribbon bolt may 
form the foundation of a homemade worsted rat- 
tle. Through some holes punched in the end of 
the ribbon bolt with a stiletto some beans are in- 
serted to make a noise. A circle of scarlet 
worsted is crocheted to fit the end of the ribbon 
bolt, and a strip that will cover the outside is cro- 
cheted also. These are sewed together over the 
bolt, forming a cover. A crocheted cord is 
fastened to the rattle, and forms a string by 
which the baby may shake the toy. The cord 
may be crocheted long enough to go around his 
neck when the rattle will look exactly like a gay 
red drum. 

There isn't anything which so fascinates a 



122 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOiME THINGS 

baby as a ball. If the very little baby is given 
six soft worsted balls of tlie rainbow colors to play 
with, they will do nuich toward opening his eyes 
to the color in the world abont him. The small 
sister can make a set of rainbow balls for the 
baby, and, at the same time, learn deftness of 
fingers herself. Strips of cotton batting are 
rolled for the fonndation until a ball three or four 
inches in diameter is formed. This should be 
wound with gray yarn that it may keep its shape. 
Last, a cover is crocheted for the ball. This is 
done in plain crochet stitch, widening every other 
stitch until the cover is cup shape, and will fit 
snugly over the ball foundation. Then it should 
be slipped over the ball and the remainder cro- 
cheted, narrowini?- until all of the ball is covered. 
A long end of the worsted is left to sew the cord 
by which the ball swings. The cord is twisted in 
four strands and knotted at the end. The knot 
is pushed through the cover of the ball at the top 
that it may be secure, and it is sewed in place. 
Six of these balls may be made and covered — red, 
orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet in color. 

A still softer worsted ball for the baby is made 
on a cardboard foundation. Two cardboard 
discs five inches in diameter are cut with center 
holes measuring an inch and a half across. 



WORSTED PLAYTHINGS 123 

These discs are put together. A long thread of 
the Germantown worsted is tied to the discs, and 
is passed up through the center hole and over the 
outside. When the thread gives out, a second 
is tied on, and the process is continued until there 
is space for no more worsted in the hole. The 
center of the ball must then be sewed very se- 
curely with a thread of the worsted which is left 
long enough to form a loop for the baby's hand. 
The edges of the ball are then cut with sharp 
scissors, the cardboard discs are torn out, and the 
worsted ends fly out, forming a dainty, fluffy 
little plaything. 



CORK TOYS 

Ur ill ll)c ,'illic ill a far corner wli(*r(t tlic eaves 
almost liidc it, stands j^raiHlniollier's ])asket 
of corks. It is a most fascinating, treasure sort 
of ])askel, full of corks of every size and shape. 
Grandmother collects them every winter, and 
washes them, and ]>uts them in the hasket to save 
for lier fall canninj.^ ancl ]>reservin^. There are 
lonj4", slraij^iit corks for tlie liottles r>f catsup and 
^rape juice, and hij^" flat crirks for the jars of chili 
sauce, and middle sized flat ones for the hottles 
of (jran^e .and ^rajje fruit jam. Perhaj)S, some 
day, when a child doesn't know what to do next, 
when he is tirecl of dolls, and trains, and ])icture 
hooks, ^ranchnotlier will let him ^o up to the cor- 
ner of the attic where th(! crjrk hasket stands and 
make some fine, strong little cork toys. A dolls' 
lunise, the dr)ll lady herself, who lives in the house, 
some furniture, a stove, and a tahle and a chair 
for the house! All these, and more, too, a child 
can make witli corks. 

it will he a new kind of ]>lay, and ever so much 
fun to sit down on the floor with a jackknife, and 



126 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

the glue bottle, and some pins, and make all these 
cork toys. 

The table is one of the least difficult pieces of 
furniture, so we will make it first. A large, flat 
cork is fastened to a long, narrow one by a drop 
of glue, and the little table is done, all ready to be 
set with some of the smallest toy dishes a child 
owns. After the table, the stove can be made. 
One of the big flat corks is glued to one of the 
middle-sized flat ones. The stovepipe is made of 
three long straight corks glued together, and then 
fastened to the back of the stove. A cork chair 
has four long pins stuck in a middle-sized flat 
cork for legs. A row of pins is put in the back 
of the cork half-way around, and brown worsted 
or very narrow strips of cloth cut from one of the 
scraps in grandmother's piece bag is laced in and 
out of these pins to form the back of the chair. 
There can be ever so many cork chairs with red, 
or green, or yellow rag backs; and worsted is 
pretty, too, to use for the lacing in the pins. In 
making a chair, the pin legs should be put in care- 
fully or the chair will not stand straight. 

The cork house is a little more difficult to make 
than cork furniture, but when it is finished, it will 
look like a real little log cottage standing in some 
play woods for a doll hunter or a dolly summer 



CORK TOYS 127 

girl to live in. The first step in making a cork 
house is to glue together some logs. Three long, 
straight corks like those grandmother puts in the 
catsup bottles will make a good sized cork log. 
One needs ever so many of these cork logs so it 
w^ill be a good plan to make them all at once and 
stand them up to dry as one works. When the 
glue is perfectly dry the logs may be piled up to 
make the side and back walls of the house and 
fastened together by pins thrust through at the 
center of the walls and at the corners. The door 
of the house is made by gluing rows of single 
corks on either corner of the side walls and half 
of a large, round cork may be put over the top 
of the door to make it look Colonial. Then comes 
the roof. Some of the cork logs are cut off at 
the top in a right angle and are fastened side by 
side with pins until there are two roof sections 
as wide as the side walls. They are then 
fastened together by pins and the entire little 
pointed roof is glued to the walls, completing the 
house. Why, a child couldn't find any dolls' 
house as nice in a toy shop, even. 

Now come the cork dolls. A little girl may 
have a whole big family of them and they are so 
light that they will float, alone, in the bath tub, 
or dance, alone, on a window sill if the window is 



128 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

raised a few inches to let in a breeze. First a 
child must find a middle-sized, flat cork, to make 
the doll's head. With a very soft pencil the doll's 
eyes, nose, and mouth and some hair are drawn 
on one side of the cork. A big, flat cork makes 
the doll's body. It will need to be shaped a little 
with the jackknife, but that is very easily done 
because cork is so very soft. The large cork is 
whittled down until it looks as nearly as possible 
like a doll's body with a neck and shoulders and 
waist. A hole is bored in the body, and one in 
the doll's head and the head is fastened to the 
body by means of a toothpick stuck in the two 
halves which lets the head turn, too. Almost 
anything will do for the cork doll's legs and arms. 
Two meat skewers may be stuck in the body by 
their pointed ends to make the arms, and two 
more will make the legs. Some rolls of cotton 
cloth, sewed with over and over stitches may be 
pinned to the cork for arms and legs. Twisted 
tissue paper will make arms and legs, too, but 
they will not last so long as the cloth. 

A cork doll is delightful to dress. It is so easy 
to stick pins in her body to hold on her clothes 
that one doesn't need buttons and buttonholes. 
She should have a very full petticoat, a dark 
homespun working dress, a white apron, and a 



CORK TOYS 129 

wide frilled cap. A cork baby will not need any 
legs at all if she has a long dress, and she looks so 
cunning in a little white cap tied in a bow under 
her chin. A cork child will do for an Eskimo, 
too, because it has exactly the right complexion. 
It should be dressed in a pointed, white flannel 
cap and a long, white coat made of cotton batting. 



HOW TO MAKE CLAY TOYS 

WOULDN'T you like to make mud pies in 
the house? Suppose the mud were the 
clean, soft, white earth that the Indians used to 
mold into dishes, and the Mound Builders used 
for their beautiful, painted jars and the mason 
shaped into bricks. Then suppose you were able 
to make, not only mud pies, but marbles, and dolls' 
dishes, and snow men, and mice, and apples, and 
bears, and necklaces, and soldiers — more pretty 
toys than one can tell — all with this same clean, 
house-mud. Would it not be fine? 

You must buy five pounds of clay flour at a 
shop where artists' materials are sold. Clay may 
also be bought all ready mixed for use, and tinted 
in lovely colors, but mixing your own clay is part 
of the fun. You must ask mother to give you an 
old stone jar, and a strong iron spoon. Then 
put on a long apron that covers you all up, and 
then you will be ready for work. 

It takes ever so much time and patience to mix 
the clay flour well, and sometimes a child will 
want to hurry too much ; but the slower, and more 

131 



132 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

carefully you do it, the better will the toys be. 
Put part of the flour in the jar, and pour in a 
little water, stirring until it is the consistency of 
a thick, gray paste. Add more flour, and more 
water, and after awhile, when the clay begins to 
thicken, you may roll up your sleeves and put 
your hands right in, mixing it with your fingers. 
Presently you can take it out of the jar and lay 
it on a smooth board where it should be kneaded, 
and rolled, and pounded until it is very pliable 
and soft. A teaspoonful or two of glycerine 
kneaded in will help to soften it and make it more 
flexible for handling. Roll a tiny bit in your 
fingers and see if it cracks when you bend it. If 
it does not crack the least bit, you may know that 
you have mixed your clay very well. 

It may be kept in the stone jar for a long time 
without hardening. Wrap it in some damp 
cloths or in oiled paper, and lay it on an inverted 
tin basin which has been placed inside the jar. 
Cover the bottom of the jar with water that there 
may be sufficient moisture, and put on a tight 
fitting top. The clay will be found as soft in a 
number of weeks as when it was first put away. 

Now for the toys! Tools, someone said? 
But every child has ten tools on his two hands. 
A broad, flat paper knife may be used to help in 



HOW TO MAKE CLAY TOYS 133 

shaping the clay, and a piece of brass wire ham- 
mered flat and fastened to a wooden handle is a 
good tool for fine work, but your ten fingers are 
really all the tools you need. Very good ones, 
too, you will find them! 

First, you must learn to make a perfectly round 
ball, smooth, and able to roll, and having not a 
single crack or corner. Did you ever think how 
many things there are in the world that look like 
balls? There are apples, and teapots, and sugar 
bowls, and beads, and people's heads, and little 
round furry cats, and pumpkins — one might go 
on all day, counting them. Take a piece of the 
clay and roll it round and round in the palms of 
your hands until it is quite spherical. Smooth 
the creases away with your thumb and see how 
many toys you are able to make with balls for the 
foundation. 

Some small balls may be strung on a strong 
piece of shoe thread, and a little heart locket 
made of a flat piece of clay is added to form a 
necklace. If one does not care for a necklace, 
the balls may be colored with water colors and 
they make very fine marbles after the clay has 
hardened. A teapot is made by adding a roll of 
clay for a spout, and a second bit, twisted to form 
a handle, to a larger sphere. Half a ball, hoi- 



134 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

lowed with the thumbs does for the porridge bowl 
from which the little bear ate his supper. And 
it is possible to model all sorts of round fruits; 
grapes, oranges, apples, plums, and melons. 

Some more half spheres may be shaped and 
molded into dolls' tea cups, and the saucers and 
plates for the tea set are made by slicing a clay 
ball in sections and then molding the edges like 
those of real dishes. 

When you have grown very expert at making 
balls, you may attempt a cylinder. This isn't as 
hard as it sounds. It is only a smooth roll of clay 
with a flat, circular face at either end. A clay 
cylinder forms the foundation for a little bear's 
body, two smaller ones with some big paws 
added, will make his front legs, and his back legs 
are two more rolls of clay, having some broad, flat 
feet molded in place. His head is spherical in 
shape. Then the nose is pinched into the right 
position; his pointed ears are put on, and his 
features are traced in the soft clay with the wire 
tool. 

What else can one make from a cylinder foun- 
dation? There are drums, and firecrackers, 
and candlesticks, and tall windmills, and mallets, 
and dolls' pitchers, and toy pails and mugs. 

If you are big enough to know what an ovoid 



HOW TO MAKE CLAY TOYS 135 

is — that really means just an egg shape — you will 
find that a clay ovoid can be changed to a mouse 
with a very long tail, or a pear, or a duck with 
toothpicks stuck in for legs, or a bunny with long 
ears. 

And a cone is the form you must shape with 
your clay if you want to make an Indian's wig- 
wam, or a carrot for the bunny, or a seashell. 

Then you can mold little clay bricks and build 
your own small houses, or model square blocks 
which may be used for walls, castles, and 
bridges. 

There isn't any end to the toys which ten clever 
fingers will be able to make with clay. Did you 
ever see so fine a soldier as this one? From his 
hat to the tips of his boots he is all clay, every bit 
of him. His soldier hat has a crown that is made 
in the form of a cone. The rim is rolled up at 
one side, and there is a coil of clay twisted about 
the rim to look like a cord. His head is a big ball 
with a nose, some eyes, and a mouth put on ; and 
be sure not to forget the buttons on his jacket. 
His jacket is cut rather square, and so are his 
shoes which come up very high over his trousers. 
His hands are large enough to hold a gun se- 
curely, and when he is finished, he should be able 
to guard the nursery from any sort of danger. 



136 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

There are so many other toys waiting for you 
inside a lump of clay. And you, who are the 
cleverest child of all, will find them hiding there. 
Farmyard animals, and carts, and little clay 
dolls, and wild animals, there are, too, perhaps 
— just waiting for your ten fingers to pull them 
out. 




CLAY DISHES A CHILD CAN MAKE 



MAGIC TOYS AND HOW TO MAKE 

THEM 

THERE are men at all the street corners in 
a big city who have queer, magic toys to 
sell — toys which seem almost alive because they 
will really do things. Every child who goes on a 
visit to the city wants to spend all his vSpare pen- 
nies for the little tin clown that turns such clever 
somersaults on the sidewalk, or the monkey that 
climbs a stick, or the dancing bear. 

These city street toys break very easily, 
though. They are not half as satisfactory to 
play with as the magic toys which he can make 
himself with very ordinary materials ; just corks, 
and stiff paper, and peanuts. In addition to the 
fun one has making them there will be also the 
pleasure of a magic toy party some evening and 
inviting in a lot of his mates to show them how 
the live toys work and what they will do. 

The little cork ballet dancer is a very gay and 
lively creature. Her head is cut from a small 
cork, while a smaller one is shaped to represent 
her body. The head is fastened to the body by 

137 



138 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

a bit of wire which is pushed down through both 
corks and the Httle lady is then dressed in full 
ballet skirts made of white tarleton, white crepe 
paper, or the dainty lace paper which comes in 
candy boxes. Four stout wires are run into 
the lower cork. This little dancer, you see, has 
four legs instead of two. Coarse broom straw 
will serve instead of bristles, or long pins that 
have round heads can be used. The cork dancer 
is then placed upon her four feet on the sounding 
board of a piano, and a lively two-step or jig is 
played. What do you suppose happens? Why, 
the little cork doll begins to dance gaily about, 
quite alone, and keeping time to the music. 

A most fearful, live sea serpent can be made 
of a piece of cardboard. The board should not 
be too thick and upon it is drawn the outline of a 
coiled serpent. A child can find a pattern for 
the serpent in a natural history book or a book 
which tells about the jungle and the sea. When 
the outline is drawn, with a pair of sharp scis- 
sors, carefully cut out the serpent, going round 
and round until the tip of its tail is reached. 
Paint it with water color paints a very bright 
green and gold in stripes. Fasten a thread 
through its tail and suspend it from the mantel- 
piece where the heat from the open fire reaches it, 



HOW TO MAKE MAGIC TOYS 139 

or hang it from a chandelier. The slightest cur- 
rent of air makes the little toy serpent writhe and 
twist like a real snake. These serpents make 
splendid, gruesome room decorations for a Hal- 
low-e'en party. 

A most agile acrobat may be made of an old 
black kid glove. The first two fingers of the 
glove should be cut down to the second joint and 
the glove slipped on the child's hand. A pair of 
tiny doll's socks are put on the two first fingers 
below the gloves and the tips of the cut-off glove 
fingers may be put on over the socks for shoes. 
A cardboard figure, either of a soldier, a clown, 
a highlander, or a brownie is cut out, colored 
with paints or crayons and glued to the glove just 
above the cut fingers. The child then doubles up 
his remaining fingers so that they do not show at 
all and he makes the little acrobat dance upon a 
table on its nimble finger legs. 

Magic bags while they are not so gay in ap- 
pearance as these other live toys will furnish quite 
as much fun at a party. Some fortunes, funny 
and suited to the party guests are printed on slips 
of paper. Penny toys, too, to serve as jokes for 
the children are selected and one fortune and one 
toy are put in each small paper bag. The bags 
are ''blown up," tied tightly at the top with a bit 



I40, GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

of ribbon and one bag is given to each guest. 
After supper the bags are burst, furnishing a lot 
of noise, and the children find their toys and the 
fortunes. 

Hairpins and straws make acrobats. The 
straws may be bought at the apothecaries where 
they stand in big jars on the soda water fountain. 
One straw will make two acrobats. Loop two 
hairpins together and put straws on each wire of 
the lower pin, bending the hairpin ends up to 
form the little man's feet. The upper hairpin is 
strung wdth one short straw for the acrobat's 
waist and then the remaining ends are bent out 
and strung with straws for the arms. A third 
hairpin strung with a short length of straw for 
the head is bent out in similar fashion and in- 
serted in the sleeves to help make the acrobat's 
hands. Very fine, wire hairpins should be used, 
because the straws break so easily, but when the 
little figure is done it will, with a child's help, go 
through all the contortions of a real circus 
acrobat. 

The last magic toy is an apple witch. She has 
eyes, nose and mouth cut with a fruit knife from 
an especially large and rosy apple. She has 
cloves stuck in rows above her eyes for eyebrows, 
and cloves make her teeth as well. Her hair is 



HOW TO MAKE MAGIC TOYS 141 

long shaving curls fastened to the top of her head 
with pins. Does a child wonder wherein lies the 
old witch's magic? Why just in this, the top of 
her head, her shaving curl wig comes right off if 
you lift it by the apple's stem and discloses a hol- 
low inside the apple filled with red and white 
candy peppermint drops. 



STRING CRAFT 

THERE is always so much string and twine 
that comes to the house with every parcel 
from market or shop. Usually, like the wrap- 
ping paper, it is looked upon as only waste ma- 
terial, and is consigned to the scrap basket, but 
it has play possibilities. Think of the tops that 
our waste bits of twine will help to spin. Think 
of the kites it will furnish with tails. Think of 
the cat's cradles it will make when the nursery 
fire burns low and the children sit about the 
hearth telling stories after tea. There are other 
possibilities in bits of string. As soon as a parcel 
comes to the house wind the string into balls, 
and save it for some stormy afternoon's busy 
work when one can't go out of doors, and the joys 
of games and books are exhausted. With a little 
practice you will be able to make whistle chains, 
school and lunch bags, horse reins, or a doll's 
hammock from this same ball of waste twine. 

The little hammock is not difficult to make and 
is very strong and attractive when it is completed. 
The size may be decided by the child who is mak- 

143 



144 CIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

ing" it, but twelve strands makes a doll's hammock 
of very good width. The lengths of string 
should be laid evenly together and bound about 
the middle by winding them in the center with 
an extra piece of twine. The short end of a bit 
of twine is laid on the middle of the twelve 
strands with the tip turning toward the left. 
Wind the long end round and round from right 
to left, binding the strands together for a dis- 
tance of three inches. The two ends of this bind- 
ing are brought together to form a loop, another 
bit of twine being wound about them, and the 
ends tied securely. A brass ring may be wound 
in with the binding to hang the hammock by. 

There are now twenty-four ends of string to 
knot together to form the body of the hammock. 
An ordinary sailor's knot will serve w'ell for the 
knotting. The strands of the hammock are then 
knotted in twos at a distance of three inches from 
the loop. In tying* the second row of knots, the 
left strand in the Hrst pair should not be tied in, 
and after knotting the row across, the right 
strand of the last pair is also left imtied. In 
starting the third row of knots the loose strand 
on the left side of the hammock is knotted in with 
the left one in the first pair of strands in this 
row. This method of tving is continued, the 




STRING BAG 



STKlNi; 1U)KSK KKINS 



STRING CRAFT 145 

strands which are left untied at the sides of the 
hammock when the second, fourth, sixth, and all 
the other even numbered rows have been knotted 
are tied in with the outside strands in the follow- 
ing row. After the last row has been tied, the 
ends of the strands should be brought together, 
a new strand is started two inches from the last 
row of knots and the ends are bound tightly to- 
gether to make a loop similar to that at the begin- 
ning. When the loop is finished, the ends should 
be cut loose to the binding. A tapestry needle 
threaded in the end of the binding strand sews it 
through and through to make it secure, and the 
hammock is finished. 

A string bag that will be found very useful 
for carrying a school or picnic lunch may be made 
in almost the same way as the hammock, except 
that the ends are bound to form a loop. Each 
strand which is to be used for the bag should be 
pinned to a cushion, or fastened with a thumb 
tack to the edge of a table or a drawing board 
that they may be drawn taut. The knotting 
is done similarly to the knotting of the hammock, 
beginning perhaps four or six inches from the 
end. This is continued until the bag is double 
the required length. The knotted strip is then 
folded through the middle, the ends being brought 



146 (;1KLS' MAKi:-AI-II()MK IIIIN(;S 

lof;"ctlicr, and llic sides arc sewed with coarse 
thread in an over and over slileh. 1lie loose 
ends of llie si rands are llien (ied in loops thronj^h 
wliicli a ril)l)on is passed to draw nj) (he lop ol 
llie ba^', or some small brass rim;s may l)e lied 
to the ends, and ribbon passed ibroni^b these. 
A red silk lining will make the bag stronger and 
also daintier. 

If twine of contrasting shades is nsed for the 
constrnction of the hammock and the bag -bine 
and pink, or red and green — the linishcd article 
will be more ellective. 

A piece o^ rather coarse string mnst be nsed 
for the whistle chain. It is cnt long enongh to 
fasten to the small boy's top coat bntton, and slip 
into his tronsers i)ocket. It is tied in sailor's 
knots, at distances n\ two or three inches apart, 
and a whistle is fastened to the end. When a 
boy has a whistle attached to a line, long whistle 
chain, he is ready for any emergency — a i)lay 
lire, or a police call, or any other sort of fnn. 

The horse reins are made of the same coarse 
twine as that which was nsed for the whistle 
chain. The reins shonld be two or three yards 
long, and knotted at intervals of fonr inches. A 
crosspiece has a bell tied into each knot, and it is 
fastened to each side of the reins far enongh from 



STRING CRAFT 147 

the middle to allow for its being slipped over the 
boy's head. 

In addition to these string playthings, a toy 
fish net may be made with the fine cord. It may 
not catch many fish, but it will perhaps entice a 
minnow or two, or some innocent polliwog. 
Twenty-four strands should be used for the net 
and knotted at distances of three or four inches 
until the net is square. The loose ends may be 
tied to long willow branches. 

A butterfly net can be made of string. It is 
constructed like the string lunch bag, except that 
the knotting should be done closer together to 
form a finer mesh. One side of the bag is 
fastened to a long stick, and the other side is left 
loose. 

There are so many craft things to do with our 
discarded twine. After this, we are going to 
save every bit of it. 



HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PICTURE 

FRAMES 

THERE are so many photographs that a Httle 
girl just loves and wants to keep always. 
There is the picture of dear grandmother, the 
first she has sat for in, oh, ever so many years. 
There is the picture of the baby, and a snap shot 
of father in his camping suit, and a picture of 
mother, and one of Brother Tom, and one of her 
dearest friend, Dorothy. 

The very best way to keep all these precious 
pictures fresh and spotless is to put each one in its 
own picture frame and it is possible for a little 
girl to make, all herself, six pretty picture frames 
to hold these six pretty pictures. 

Dear grandmother's picture first. Tucked 
away in the corner of the attic is a bunch of dried 
sweet grass that you gathered on the farm last 
vacation. The very material to frame dear 
grandmother's white curls and soft eyes. 

Put the grass soaking in a basin of w^arm water 
and then cut out the foundation for the picture 
frame. It is a piece of oval cardboard four 

149 



ISO GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME IHINGS 

inches wide and six inches high. The oval hole 
for the picture is just the same shape as the out- 
side of the frame, and is cut an inch in from the 
outside. \Mien the cardboard is cut, the grass 
is soaked and is soft and pliable so you can dry 
it with a soft towel and begin winding it around 
the frame, covering the cardboard. When an 
end of the grass is not long enough, tie on an- 
other one, keeping the knot always on the wrong 
side, and soon a dainty green grass frame is fin- 
ished. Then lay the frame down on a piece of 
stiff paper and draw the outline of the back. 
Slip grandmother's picture inside the frame, and 
glue the back on to hold it in place. You may 
hang the picture and its frame by a loop of sw^eet 
erass to the wall of vour own little room where 
you will see it the first thing in the morning and 
the last tiling- at niq;ht. 

Father's picture comes next. A square of 
birch bark, with a square opening in the center 
for the picture makes his frame. There is a bit 
of birch bark in the attic with the sweet grass and 
it came from die very tree next father's camp 
so it couldn't be put to a better use than framing 
his picture. 

The baby's picture is made of chintz because 
you want it to stand on your dressing table and 



■^Jk^ 



;>* V-^''^ 












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'^■^, 









^ L. 



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W =: 

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^ 






w ^- 



PICTURE FRAMES 151 

the table is covered with chintz under the white 
Swiss cover. The foundation for the baby's 
frame is cardboard, a square that measures just 
six inches on each side. In the center of the 
frame there is an oval space for the baby's chubby 
face and the whole frame is covered with chintz, 
keeping the roses in the pattern at the top. 
When you cut out the oval in the chintz leave it 
a little wider than the cardboard opening and 
slash it with your scissors so that it will turn 
back neatly and smoothly. A second six-inch 
square of cardboard, glued to three sides of the 
chintz frame makes the back and the baby's pic- 
ture slips in nicely through the bottom open edge 
of the frame. 

In one of the cubby-holes of your desk there 
are some scrap pictures of wild animals. They 
are left from the last scrapbook, and they are 
colored and very gay — just the very decoration 
for Brother Tom's picture frame. Lay one of 
your largest doll's plates on a very clean piece of 
cardboard, draw a pencil line around it, and then 
cut it out. That is to be the shape of the wild 
animal frame. Then lay a dolls' saucer, exactly 
in the middle of the big circle and draw around 
this, also cutting it out to make the opening for 
Tom's picture. Why, it looks like a little circus 



152 GIRLS' xMAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

ring, this last picture frame ! Around the border 
of the frame, paste neatly a procession of the 
scrap picture animals and fit a paper back to the 
frame. When Brother Tom's photograph looks 
out through the animal frame, it is really smiling 
just as any boy would smile at a circus. 

How shall we frame mother's picture, dear 
mother who is always so busy mending, and bak- 
ing, and picking up toys, and amusing the chil- 
dren? Find your paint box and open your 
school reader at the pages where the sunbonnet 
babies are drawn, queer little figures in red bon- 
nets and red dresses and white aprons to keep 
the red dresses clean. Why, you could trace 
the pictures with some thin paper, turn the paper 
over and transfer the sunbonnet child to the 
square picture frame you have just cut. Draw 
busy sunbonnet babies sewing, in two corners of 
the frame and toys in the other corners. Paint 
them red just like the pictures and make a card- 
board back for the frame for mother's picture. 

There is only one picture left now without a 
frame, the photograph of Dorothy, such a splen- 
did chum and always ready for any sort of a 
romp. Her picture frame is made seven inches 
wide and nine inches long, with an oval opening 
in the center through which Dorothy's merry 



PICTURE FRAMES 153 

face will peep out at the brownies that decorate 
the frame. Trace the brownies from your 
brownie book on white drawing paper and then 
cut them out. Their queer little pointed caps, 
and their pointed shoes, and their jackets you 
can paint black with ink, and the top brownie sits 
on a stone wall with an orange paper jack-o'-lan- 
tern at his side. The brownies and the pumpkin 
are pasted neatly to the frame, with no spots of 
paste anywhere to spoil it. 

It is really hard to tell which of the frames is 
the prettiest when they are finished. 



HOW TO MAKE A SCHOOL BAG 

THE materials for the bag are a half yard of 
heavy gray canvas, a skein of crimson rope 
silk, a little white muslin cloth, and some scraps 
of red, orange colored, russet brown, and moss 
green cambric or sateen. The canvas comes in 
different widths, but the thirty-six inch width is 
the most suitable for a school bag. 

First, cut from the canvas a strip two and a 
half inches wide. This should be cut across, and 
not in the direction of the selvedge, because the 
selvedges are to be used for the hems. This strip 
is to be laid aside and used later for the strap for 
the bag. 

Next, turn each selvedge in to form a hem four 
inches wide. Only one turning is necessary be- 
cause there are no raw edges. Then crease the 
material across three inches below this fold, so 
that you will have a straight guide to sew by, for 
the sewing is to be done on the outside, and must 
look well. 

If you are a good little seamstress, you may 
sew this across with a chain stitch, or a feather 

155 



156 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

stitch, but the easiest way for small hands is a 
simple back stitch. To do this, the thread should 
be started from underneath near the right hand 
end. Then the needle is put down through the 
canvas a short distance back of this and brought 
up through an equal distance ahead of it. The 
next stitch goes back to the starting point and 
again ahead, so that the appearance when it is 
done is like machine stitching. If you don't 
understand from this how it is done, I am sure 
mother will show you. 

When these hems are both done, the cloth is 
ready to be made into a bag. Each raw edge 
is to be turned in a quarter of an inch and creased, 
and the two hems folded until they meet. The 
two edges at each end are to be basted together, 
and backstitched firmly to make a strong seam. 
The crimson rope silk looks very bright and 
pretty against the gray of the canvas. 

This forms a bag measuring fourteen inches 
high by fifteen wide, which is quite large enough 
to carry all the books you need to bring home. 

The strap is the next thing to be made. Take 
the strip which you first cut from the canvas, and 
fold each raw edge in a quarter of an inch. 
Then fold these two sides to meet each other and 
backstitch them together with the silk. This 




DECORATION FOR CHILd's SCHOOL BAG 




nF(.'OKA riox i-i^K rii 1 1 i> s M lut'M i;ai; 



now '{() MAKE A S('[fO()L P>AC; 157 

iTinkes a strong flat stra]j ihirty-six inches long 
and <)]\c incli wide. It is to he fastened tightly 
to the imderside of the hag at each encL You 
must ni.'ike lliis fastening esjjecially strong, for 
it is to hear tJic whr)le weight of the hooks. 

Now you are ready to decorate the hag, and 
this is wliere you will he ahle to make the hag 
as jjretty and as unlike the other girls' as you 
please. 

i^'or the decoration shown in the picture, some 
ducks were selected, and grass, and a tree. iJid 
you ever see ducks waddle? They never run in 
a flock as chickens do, hut almost always in Indian 
file, ''one follows after, and one hehind" — right 
foot, left foot — all tliC right feet together, and 
all tlie left feet, and then suddenly they all sto]> 
and wag their little jjointed tails. These ducks 
are sort of nursery ducks, on red standards like 
those the little tin soldiers have, hut I have made 
them follow each other as the real ducks do, and 
each is a little smaller than the one hefore it, for 
each is a little farther away. 

Tlie first jjart of this decoration to he made is 
the grass, h'or tliis you should take a piece of 
the green sateen frjurteen and a half inches long 
and slanting at the lojj in an irregular line from 
six inches at one end to ahout seven and a half at 



158 cnULS' MAKE-AT-HOME TIlINCiS 

the other. This ^ives the appearance of a side of 
a hill with little huininocks on it. 

Next cnt from the russet hrown sateen a strip 
which will look like a part of a hig old tree trunk, 
which will reach just ahove the top of the hill and 
have a sut^gestion of hranches, the ends of which 
are hidden hy some irregular pieces of green 
sateen which look like masses of leaves seen from 
a distance. Of course, the whole tree is so very 
hig that you couldn't possihly put it all on. It 
shows just as a tree sometimes shows in the cor- 
ner of a picture, with more of it out of the picture 
than there is in it. 

Now that the landscape is done, you may jnit in 
the ducks. First draw a simple pattern, which 
you may copy from a Mother Goose hook, or, if 
you hapi)en to live in the country, from a real live 
duck. And make the pattern in three sizes. 
When this is done, cut the ])atterns into four sec- 
tions — the hills, hodies, feet, and standards. 
The standards are to he made of the red sateen, 
the hills and feet of the orange colored, and the 
hodies of the white muslin. 

When everything is cut out they should he 
pasted, with a plentiful supply of photo paste, to 
the outer side of the hag, and the lines of feet, 



HOW TO MAKE A SCHOOL BAG 159 

win^s, bills, and eyes iiiarkcd in with a black 
crayon. 

You can vary the decoration of this l)a^ hi a 
hundred ways. It nii^lit have a mother hen 
with her flock of downy chicks, or little Red 
Riding Hood, or the Three Bears, or just some 
grass and trees, with an orange colored sun peep- 
ing over the hill, or a crimson sun dropping be- 
hind it. Only remember that the more simple 
the decoration the more attractive will be tlie 
result. 



HOW TO COVER YOUR OWN BOOKS 

IT is so hard to keep your schoolbooks look- 
ing as fresh and neat as when they first came 
from the shelves in the book shop. A school- 
book leads a very strenuous sort of a life and you 
often allow it to grow dog-ears and to lie open 
on the library table or your desk at school. This 
tires a schoolbook fearfully. It is hard enough 
that it has to multiply and do sums and spell and 
bound foreign countries all day long without 
being so unkindly treated by a child that its bind- 
ings grow tired and its leaves drop out and its 
pretty colored cover gets grimy and faded and 
torn. A schoolbook will work better and teach 
you more if you are careful of it. 

The man who wrote your book spent, maybe, 
a great many years thinking about how to say 
the things which you find inside the covers. 
The man who printed it had a huge factory 
filled with great presses to help him and he 
spent a thousand dollars — maybe more — to make 
that one little book which you bought for a 
dollar. Books, you see, hold a great deal that 

i6i 



1 62 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

is precious — records of things that have been 
learned by years and years of study, facts that 
would never have lived any longer than the 
people w^ho knew about them if they had not been 
printed upon the leaves of a book, and stories of 
events that have made the history of nations. 

You never thought about all this, did you, 
when you bought your last schoolbook? Now 
you are going to be very careful indeed of it and 
you are going to sit down the first spare evening 
you have and make the new schoolbook comfort- 
able by giving it a new dress — a strong, nicely 
fitted, artistic book cover. 

A good material to use for a book cover is the 
heaviest hardware paper, or, if you can find it, 
''building" paper. This latter comes in either 
gray or a peculiar shade of terra cotta, and the 
fiber of it is exceedingly tough. Either color 
may be used to advantage, though the gray is 
better, for it lends itself to almost any sort of 
decoration, while the terra cotta can be decorated 
only in black or with Indian reds and blues. 

To make the book cover you must first find the 
size of your book, measuring the height of your 
book, and then, with a tape, measure around it 
from the front edge of the front cover to the front 
edge of the back cover. This measurement 



HOW TO COVER YOUR BOOKS 163 



should be taken loosely, and it will be found to be 
a little more than if the width of the covers were 
added to the thickness of the book. That is, if 
the covers are five and five-eighths inches wide 
and the book is a half inch thick, the measure- 
ment for the paper cover, instead of being tw^o 















1 

1 

1 



















times five and five-eighths, plus a half inch, or 
eleven and three-quarters inches, will be about 
twelve and one-quarter inches. 

If the book measures seven and a half inches 
high, this will make an oblong seven and a half 
inches by twelve and one quarter. This should 
be marked on the paper with a pencil and straight 



1 64 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

edge, and a second oblong marked outside of it 
whose sides are two inches away from the inner 
one in every direction. This margin is to fold 
over on the inside of the covers. (Fig. i) The 
full lines are cuts and the dotted lines are folds. 
The little sections which are cut in the middle for 
the back of the book are folded down inside for 
strength. The other margins are also folded 
under, and, where they lap, are pasted. 

Now the cover is ready for decoration, and in 
this a child can display a great deal of taste and 
imagination. 

For a set of schoolbooks a good scheme is to 
make either uniform, or similar borders in pen 
and ink on each cover, and then put the name of 
the book on in ''block" lettering. If the book is 
small the border may be extended only across the 
top and bottom, with a single line connecting the 
two at each side, but if the book is large enough 
or the border narrow, it will look better if carried 
around all four sides. 

For this border there are any amount of things 
which may be used. Plain geometrical forms, or 
a leaf or flower may be conventionalized, and re- 
peated, or reversed, or alternated with something 
else in a hundred different ways. A very pretty 
border may be made by alternating a flower pat- 



HOW TO COVER YOUR BOOKS 165 

tern and a leaf of the same plant, and coloring 
them in their natural colors with paints or 
crayons. 

The block lettering is shown in Fig. 2. Six 
parallel horizontal lines are drawn about a six- 
teenth of an inch apart. The letters are made 




about a quarter of an inch wide and a sixteenth- 
inch space is left between each two letters. The 
upright parts of the letters are just lines, and the 
cross pieces "blocks. '^ It is a very simple and 
effective way of lettering. The only letter which 
does not follow the regular spacing is the A, in 
which the cross piece drops a little below the 
center section, because the upper part is so small 
that it would look top heavy with the bar exactly 
in the middle. 

When you grow tired of making borders as a 
decoration for your schoolbook covers, you may 
trace some of the favorite pictures in your story 
books on a sheet of carbon paper, transfer these 
patterns to the book cover and then fill in with 
Indian ink or paints the outlines you have made. 



i66 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

Puss-in-Boots may be pictured on the cover of 
one book, on another — Little Red Riding Hood, 
or Cinderella, or Jack and his wonderful bean 
stalk. 

You see you may have just as pretty and differ- 
ent covers for your books as you have time to 
make. 








— ""nffailS r- *' .. ^ ' '- ■'>^--- 




STENCILLED SCHOOL APRON 



HOW TO STENCIL YOUR SCHOOL 
APRONS 

MOTHER said that you must wear a homely, 
long-sleeved apron to school to cover the 
pretty new dress and you didn't want to, one bit. 
Perhaps you were a pouting little girl for a while, 
and the sky seemed all covered with clouds, and 
there was a scowl on your forehead where there 
should have been a smile. 

An apron is not always pretty, especially if it 
is a useful, high-necked one that covers a child 
from top to toe. Perhaps it is made of plain blue 
chambray without a frill or a bit of embroidery 
anywhere. But, listen! When mother next 
gets out her workbag and the big shears, ready 
to make you a new apron for school, ask her to 
give you some pieces of cloth large enough to cut 
into shape for the collar and pockets of the apron, 
and then you, a little girl, can really stencil the 
cloth in some lovely flower or animal patterns 
that will make the homely, long-sleeved apron 
quite a thing of beauty. 

You can buy designs for stenciling at an art 

167 



1^8 (;ii;ls' m akk-ai-iiomk iiiings 

store l)iil il is \rr\ cisy lOr ;i cliild lo make \\vv 
own i)atU'riis and 11 will ])c Iwicr llir tun. Any 
(losii;!!, wlu'lluT \<)n lind i( in a l)il ol crclonnc 
iU' cliinl/, an animal picinrc l)()(>k, or a drawing;, 
will do (o make (lie pallern if il only lias real 
lines lo eo|)\'. In elioosini; llie desiiMi \'on wanl, 
a \c\'\ simi)le one a leal, a \iiie, a moinin^" 
i^lorv, or jnsl one animal lorm will he lonnd 
easiesl lo eopv. Somelimes a liL;nre on wall 
paper — a carpel, or rni; will .L;i\e one a i^ood 
idea. ( )ld magazines ai'e perUni Ireasnre lro\es 
of design and inside llieir ad\ crlisim; pact's, pie- 
Imes n{ ships, birds, eliildreii, and animals can 
he lOnnd which will he jnsl iii;hl lo make inlo 
slencil designs. 

W hen Non ha\'e selecled ihc design, it is time 
to make the slencil. The paltern is fnsl drawn 
Ol' Iraced upon thin while IraciiiL^ paper and then 
carelnlU liansltMred with a sheet ol carhon to 
the stencil paper or hoard. This slencil hoard 
you would best buy at an art shoj). Il comes in 
larj;c sheets at only a few cents a sheet. Two 
inches should he allowed as a mari^in about the 
pattern so that the lingers and fabric need not 
he stained in a|)pl\ in*; the color. 1 1 stiMicil hoard 
is not ohlainahle, ordiiiar\' slilT manila i)a|)er or 
cardboard ina\ be used, aiul the cardboard ])al- 



SCHOOL APRONS 169 

tern can be preserved if, after it is cut out, it is 
washed over with a thin coat of varnish or 
shellac. Manila paper patterns may be treated 
with a coat of paraffin, spread on with a hot flat 
iron. These preservatives prevent the color 
from blurring when the design is painted in. 

No great degree of skill is needed to cut the 
pattern out, or to apply it. The only require- 
ments are a good, sharp knife and patience. 
The pattern should be thumb tacked to a board. 
The knife should be held vertically, and only the 
point used in making a clean, true cut. By 
drawing the knife point over a bit of sand paper 
or whetstone after a few cuts, the point will be 
kept sharp. Small scissors, both straight and 
curved will be necessary to correct any errors 
made in the knif^ strokes and to true the corners 
and curves. 

After the design is cut, it should be tacked se- 
curely to the fabric which is to be stenciled. A 
sheet of blotting paper must be put under the 
goods to absorb the surplus color and keep the 
paints from blurring, and the edges of the pat- 
tern must be held firmly or the brush will work 
its way under and spoil the outline. 

Dyes and oil paints give the best results in 
color. In using oil paints, the desired color is 



I70 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

thinned with turpentine to the right consistency. 
If too thick the color will go on in streaks and if 
too thin it will spread and blur. It should 
always be tried first upon a small waste piece of 
the fabric before the actual painting is begun. 

The regular stencil brushes are round and 
short and stiff. They may be bought in any art 
or paint shop and their size should depend upon 
the size of the design. One brush should be used 
for every color. 

Dip the brush in the paint and press out all 
the moisture against the side of the saucer, and 
then upon a small piece of blotting paper, to make 
its dryness absolutely sure. The brush should be 
held firmly and vertically, and the paint worked 
in from the edge of the stencil towards the center. 
The stencil should be carefully wiped with an 
old, soft cloth each time it is taken off. Any 
sort of cloth that will tub can be stenciled by a 
little girl. The best apron materials, of course, 
are chambrays, ginghams, or linens, but dainty 
muslins, madras cloths, and even organdies may 
be stenciled for afternoon wear. When a plain 
chambray is used for the apron, white linen col- 
lars and pocket stenciled in an animal design like 
the one in the picture will be most effective. 

There, the little girl has finished her stenciling 



SCHOOL APRONS 171 

just in time for mother is ready to cut, and fit, 
and stitch the collar and cuffs. It will be the 
prettiest apron of all when its little owner 
proudly walks up the school aisle with it on in 
the morning, and she will forget all about how 
much she hated to wear the homely, long-sleeved 
apron that isn't homely any more. 

Before we know it, the little girl artist will be 
stenciling the nursery window curtains, and the 
nursery table cover, and maybe a couch cover, 
too, she will have grown so expert at the work. 



.,»,(-. 



CHRISTMAS GIFTS A LITTLE GIRL CAN 

MAKE 

grandmother's spectacle case. 

THIS is going to be the very Christmas gift 
that dear grandmother most needs. She 
is always losing her spectacles, or looking for a 
scrap of soft cloth with which to polish them. 
This case which any child may make grand- 
mother can fasten to her belt, and it will keep 
the spectacles safe — and bright — and shining. 

A strip of soft, tan colored chamois or leather 
is cut six and one-half inches long and two and 
one-quarter inches wide. One end of the strip 
is cut in a half circle, and the opposite end is 
left straight. A second strip is cut the same 
width as the first, but eight inches long. Both 
ends are rounded like a half circle. The two 
strips are then laid together with the wrong side 
of the material inside, and the end of the longer 
strip folded over for a lap. The case is laid on 
a cutting board and a row of holes is punched 
around the edge through both pieces. The top 
holes are punched through the flap, also, a nar- 
row strip of the chamois or leather used for the 

173 



174 CrIRLS' MAKE- A'l -HOME THINGS 

case is laced in and out ibrou^i^h the holes, and 
the front is decorated witli a flower design done 
with the child's nursery paints. 

mother's work bag. 

It is a dainty, tiny work Ijag, the right size to 
fit in mother's apron pocket where she can find it 
easily when she makes her house rounds in the 
morning, and wants to sew up rips and put on 
buttons. 

A circle of pink Dresden flowered silk eight 
inches in diameter is cut. Four deep scallops are 
then made in the edge, and the i)iece is lined with 
white silk. This gives the lit lie work bag four 
sides. Narrow white or pink baby ribbon is then 
feather stitched across three of the sides, mak- 
ing compartments for a pair of scissors and four 
tiny bits of cardboard upon which are wound 
black thread and black silk, white thread and 
white silk. To the fourth side, scalloped flannel 
needle hearts are fastened with feather stitch- 
ing. The work bag is then folded together flat 
along the lines shown in the picture and pressed 
with a hot flatiron. A soft cloth should be laid 
over the silk to prevent scorching. Two lengths 
of baby ribbon tie the work bag at the top. 




(a) knife case (b) spectacle case (c) pin roll 
(d) work bag (e) memorandum pad 




* « •» 

* • » 



vl 




W 

W 

« 

o 

Q 

Q 
W 



CHRISTMAS GIFTS 175 

father's memorandum pad. 

Father is always forgetting the errands mother 
asks him to do down town. Christmas morning 
he will find a fine new memorandum pad on his 
desk to help him remember things. 

The foundation is a little square pad of unruled 
paper from the stationer's. A hole is punched 
all the way through the top of the pad. The 
shoemaker will do this for the child, or he can 
do it himself with a hammer and wire nail. 

Three strands of sweet grass and some blue 
glass beads make the cord which is tied to the pad 
and fastens the pencil. The strands of sweet 
grass are knotted in the hole in the pad and 
braided for a distance of two or three inches. A 
second knot is then made, and on each strand a 
bead is slipped. This braiding and knotting is 
continued until the cord is about fifteen inches 
long when the pencil is tied on. 

sister's pin roll. 

Big sister is getting to be such a grown-up 
girl. She does up her hair and wears more 
pretty dresses and goes to more parties than lit- 
tle sister can count. Her Christmas gift shall 
be a dainty ribbon pin roll to lie on her dresser 



176 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

table so she will always know just where to find 
a pin when she needs it ; and won't she love it be- 
cause Little Sister made it, all herself ! 

Half a yard of Dresden ribbon that is six 
inches wide makes the pin roll. A strip of white 
eider-down is cut as long as the ribbon but an 
inch narrower. The eider-down is laid on the 
ribbon and the ribbon is hemmed over on it at 
the edges with very small stitches. One end of 
the ribbon is pointed, and the other end has a 
shirred silk pocket to hold shirtwaist pins. Baby 
ribbon is sewed on the pointed end to tie the pin 
roll when it is not in use. 



brother's knife case. 



Brother has a fine, new jackknife, but he has 
lost it, ever so many times. The Christmas gift 
which will delight him more than any other, is 
a knife case just the right size to hold that jack- 
knife, and stay in his pocket and keep the knife 
from running away. 

The material for the knife case is a piece of 
either bright red or dark green leather, the 
Christmas colors. It is made in almost the same 
way as grandmother's spectacle case except that 
it is smaller. One strip of leather which makes 
the knife case is cut four and one-half inches 



CHRISTMAS GIFTS 177 

long and two inches wide, and the other is the 
same width, but five and one-half inches long. 
The first piece is made half round at one end and 
straight at the other, and the second piece is 
rounded in the same way at both ends. The 
holes in the edges of the knife case are punched 
a little closer than those in the spectacle case — a 
quarter of an inch apart is a good distance. The 
lacing is done with a very narrow strip of leather. 
Brother's monogram is done on the outside of 
the knife case with India ink. 

THE baby's dolls. 

The baby has so many old dolls that she has 
loved and played with until they are dirty, and 
without any clothes, most of them. The little 
girl sister may wash their faces, comb their hair, 
and dress them in the scraps of cloth from 
mother's piece bag to represent some queer little 
folks who are enjoying Christmas, too, in other 
lands. 

The Japanese doll and the Chinese baby are 
dressed in brand new crepe kimonos, cut all in 
one piece and slipped over their heads. The rag 
dolls are dressed in gay colors, like Tyrolean 
peasants. The little sailor doll's suit is of white 
flannel and he wears a white tam-o'-shanter hat 



I7S (.IKLS' MAKI':-A'I-II()MK IIIIN(iS 



made of .1 j^alluTcd ciiclc, sewed in ovcv and over 
slilolu'S lo a slrai^lil hand. Tlic lilllc Swedish 
hoy and ^irl dolls woai- llannci snils, and Mu'ir 
loalhcr shoos arc made of Ihc scraps IcTl from ihc 
knife case. 

When (lie hahy finds her old dolls in (heir new 
cosliinies on ( hris(nias nioinin^, she will love 
(hem more liian ever and he((er (han (he new 
dollic. 



CHRISTMAS BAGS A CHILD CAN MAKE 

THERE are so many things for which bags 
may be used, and so many ways, too, of mak- 
ing them that a Httle girl can give her friends a 
goodly number of homemade Christmas presents 
which will all be different, one from another, 
and will still answer to the same name — Bag. 

It is just a question of choosing the prettiest 
designs, and selecting the material which will be 
most suitable for the use to which the bag is to 
be put. 

There is the darning bag for grandmother, 
which can be made in straight fashion of a yard 
of brown linen with a gay holly ribbon in the hem 
at the top to draw it up by. 

Brother may have a shoe bag to hang on his 
clothespress door. Chintz, in a flowered design 
should be used for this bag. An eighteen inch 
square is bound with white tape and four square 
pockets to hold brother's best shoes and his bed- 
time slippers are stitched to the square. A box 
pleat at the bottom of each pocket makes it hold 
the shoes better and tape loops hang the bag to 
the hooks on the clothespress door. 

179 



i8o GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

Mother will just love a pink linen bag to hold 
her dusters, and the little girl herself will need 
a dainty bag to hold all her sewing things while 
she is at work on the other bags. Suppose we 
make that one next ; a little girl's work bag. 

A very pretty, and inexpensive one may be 
made from an ordinary large fancy handker- 
chief, just a man's size handkerchief with a col- 
ored border, and some flowers or a conventional 
design on it. These handkerchiefs may be ob- 
tained in very pretty designs and colorings and 
at a cost of only ten or 11 f teen cents. All that 
one needs aside from the handkerchief to make 
the work bag, are two yards of baby ribbon the 
color of the handkerchief border, or of a pretty 
contrasting color, and a skein of embroidery silk 
of the same shade as the ribbon. 

First, fold one side of the handkerchief over 
to meet the other side and crease it through the 
center. Then fold each of these sides back, one 
being folded toward you, and the other away 
from you, so that they extend about an inch be- 
yond the crease. 

Next, take a needleful of the embroidery silk 
and join each outside end fold to the adjoining 
inside end fold, in a "catstitched" seam. This 
makes what appears to be a long, double pocket. 



CHRISTMAS GIFTS i8i 

Catstitching is done by making two parallel rows 
of stitches, taking first a stitch above and then 
one below, so that the thread crosses itself each 
time, as in Fig. i. 




Then do a row of catstitching across each of 
the long edges of the handkerchief, not joining 
it to any other part, and making the rows of 
stitching about three-eighths of an inch apart. 
This is for a casing for the draw-strings. There 
are two draw-strings, each made of a yard of the 
baby ribbon. They are run through the casing 
on both sides, one of them starting at one end 
and one at the other, and the two ends of each 
are tied in a little bow. 

Now the bag is done, and if you put something 
in it and pull on the little ribbon bows, you will 
be surprised to see it fall into the shape shown in 
the picture, that you hadn't expected. 

Sister's party bag will be the next Christmas 
bag. It IS so pretty to work upon. This is the 
most expensive one of all, for it requires two 



i82 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

yards of ribbon five inches wide, seven-eighths of 
a yard five-eighths inches wide, and two yards 
of three-eighth inch ribbon. A plain ribbon 



a. 


a. 




b 




^ 


dC 






cL 


C 


c 



with a Httle figure is very attractive. Still more 
so is a ribbon with a satin edge in a different 
color, which gives it an unusual effect. The nar- 
rower ribbons may be of a plain color. 




NURSERY LAUNDRY BAG 



CHRISTMAS GIFTS 183 

The five inch ribbon is to be cut into four equal 
strips, which will be eighteen inches long. One 
end of each strip is to be turned in for about an 
eighth of an inch, and the end overhanded to the 
side of the next strip, so that the strips will all 
be sewed in the position shown in Fig. 2. 

The other end of each strip should be finished 
with a narrow hem. 

Next, each two adjoining sides, which are at 
right angles to each other in the diagram in Fig. 
2, are to be overhanded together as far as the 
hem on the shorter side. That is, a is to be 
joined to a, h to h, c to c, and d to d. This will 
leave four points at the top of the bag. 

Now you must stitch your five-eighths inch 
ribbon on the outside of the bag for a casing. 
It may be put on with a short running stitch, 
and should go straight around the bag just below 
the points at the top. It must be put on in two 
pieces, with the raw ends turned under, and a 
little space left on each side where the casings 
come together, so that the draw strings may be 
run in. These are made of the narrowest ribbon 
and are put in just as you did for the first bag. 

It is a very dainty party bag, and will accom- 
rnodate fan, handkerchief, slippers, opera glasses, 
or whatever may be required. 



1 84 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

Mother's pink linen duster bag is very simple 
to make, and very, very useful. A yard of linen 
— the better quality which comes at about twenty- 
five cents a yard — will be sufficient. Fold the 
cloth double from side to side, so that the sel- 
vedges are together, and baste it all around the 
edge. The lower end should be trimmed per- 
fectly square and the upper one should have the 
corners rounded. 

Next, measure fourteen inches up from the 
lower end and fold this fourteen inch section up 
to form a pocket. This also should be basted in 
position. With ordinary tape, or with bias lawn 
seam tape (which is better) bind the side and 
top edges, fastening the pocket in place and mak- 
ing a finish for the raw edges. Now the eight 
inch section, which you will find left about the 
pocket, may be folded down for a lap, and the 
word "Dusters" written across it in pencil and 
embroidered in a simple outline stitch with a bit 
of colored silk or worsted. Three brass rings 
placed at the center and two ends of the top of 
the bag to hang it up by, make it complete. 

And when a little girl has made all these bags, 
she will be ready to stop and rest awhile and 
think about hanging up her stocking and wonder 
what Santa Claus is going to put in it. 



A HOME TRIMMED CHRISTMAS TREE 

OF course one can buy, if one wishes, a 
whole boxful of the gay toy shop Christ- 
mas tree baubles; bells, and balls, and tinsel 
things, that the German toy man makes and 
sends across the ocean to us at Christmas time. 
But there is another, a much nicer way of mak- 
ing the little tree look pretty as it stands indoors, 
in the Christmas firelight. Instead of covering 
its waiting branches with ornaments which one 
buys, a child may make the Christmas tree look 
even more beautiful by decorating it with some 
pretty homemade things. It really seems as if 
a Christmas tree's branches would be happier, 
too, holding the ornaments that a little girl really 
makes, and you will have had all the pleasure 
for days and days before Christmas of working 
to make the decorations and thinking just how 
lovely they are going to look when they are hung 
in the tree's green depths. 

One should remember in selecting the colors 
to be used in making Christmas tree ornaments 
at home that white, and gold, and red are really 

185 



i86 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

the only colors that will look well against the 
wonderful dark green of the tree. A pot of gold 
paint, some red and white paper, a sheet of card- 
board — these are the only materials a child will 
need to buy. All the other necessary materials 
for making some more Christmas tree ornaments 
are to be found right at home. 

Everybody knows how very dainty pop corn, 
strung on white threads, looks, festooned from 
branch to branch of a Christmas tree. But if 
cranberries are strung, alternately, with the ker- 
nels of corn, the chains will be even prettier. 
Another dainty use for pop corn is to pin single 
kernels to the extreme ends of the Christmas 
tree twigs, and cranberries may also be fastened 
on in the same way, the little red balls making 
the tree look very gay indeed. Nuts, the larger 
round ones, preferably, such as English walnuts, 
or almonds, may be covered thickly with gold 
paint and either strung in long chains on gold 
cord after the fashion of the glass balls one 
buys in a shop, or hung from the ends of the 
branches. After the nut is gilded, a hole will 
have to be bored through it to admit the gold 
cord, but this can be done very easily with an 
awl, and in the case of an almond with a darning 
needle. Blocks of sugar tied with white thread 



A CHRISTMAS TREE 187 

and suspended from the ends of the branches 
form a unique tree decoration. Still another 
tree ornament is the ever lovely Christmas star. 
This should have a cardboard foundation on 
each side of which gold paper is pasted and then 
cut out exactly even with the edges of the star. 
Christmas stars may be pinned to the branches 
or suspended by thread where they will swing 
and sway with every breath of air. 

Some of the small colored pictures to be found 
in the pages of the Christmas magazines may 
be cut out and used as ornaments for the Christ- 
mas tree. The holiday magazines are always 
issued quite a long while before Christmas so 
there will be plenty of time to prepare these pic- 
tures. The smaller ones will make the more at- 
tractive tree decorations ; pictures of Santa Claus, 
children, toys, or Madonna pictures. After 
they are cut out, they should be mounted on card- 
board backs, and a tinsel frame is pasted around 
the edge of the cardboard with a few stitches. 
The tinsel comes on spools and one spool will 
be enough to frame ever so many of these pic- 
ture ornaments which hang from gold cord to 
the tree. 

Some quaint little dolls to hang from the 
Christmas tree are made of lollipops. If possi- 



1 88 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

ble, red lollipops should be used, and the doll's 
face is drawn with either a very soft pencil, or 
black crayon on the white oiled paper that covers 
the candy. A roll of white paper glued to the 
stick a short distance below the head serves for 
the lollipop's arms, and the doll is dressed in a 
very full skirt and waist made of red tissue 
paper. A number of these lollipop ladies may 
hang by red ribbons tied about their necks to 
the Christmas tree as gifts for the little girls 
who come to see the home decorated tree. 
Harlequins for the boys may be made of red 
and white peppermint candy sticks. A stuffed 
white tissue paper head on which an inked, clown 
face is drawn is tied with thread to the top of 
the stick. A pointed, red tissue cap with a very 
tiny ball at the top is slipped over the head, and 
a very full ruffle of red tissue, also, is gathered 
about the little harlequin's neck and tied in half 
way down the stick. The remaining half of the 
candy stick is left bare. These little candy 
clowns will form a very novel Christmas tree 
decoration, and their heads and blouses will slip 
off with the greatest ease when a child wishes 
to eat the peppermint stick. 

Snow flake crystals cut from white rice paper, 
and fastened together l)y pasting at the points 



A CHRISTMAS TREE 189 

so as to form a long chain makes another novel 
tree decoration. Halves of egg shells gilded, 
may be used as tiny candy baskets, the edge of 
the shell being bound with a strip of gold paper 
and suspended by a loop of the same. 

There is really no end to the list of home orna- 
ments one may make and hang on the Christmas 
tree. And won't old St. Nicholas be surprised 
when he comes down the chimney and discovers 
that his work is all done? 



HOMEMADE VALENTINES 

ON St. Valentine's Day, when the children 
are sending to each of their friends a lit- 
tle bit of the heart's gold, those who send as 
well as those who receive the precious missives 
will find in them a great deal more pleasure if 
they are not the ordinary shop purchased kind, 
but made by careful little fingers. 

But you don't know how to make valentines, 
you say. The valentines you buy are so prettily 
decorated with flowers and hearts and cupids, 
and paper lace. Well, was there any prettier 
lace than that which was in the box of candy 
father brought you last week? Or, if you want 
to use perfectly fresh paper lace, you can buy it 
in strips. If your bookshop man doesn't keep 
it he can get it for you, and it costs very little. 
Then, too, you can buy the most fascinating lace 
paper hearts, and flowers — singly or in bunches 
or sprays — whole sheets of them, which have 
only to be cut apart. The small hearts and 
cupids, etc., it is very easy to cut from red or 
gold paper. Aside from this, you will need only 

191 



192 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

some sheets of stiff red paper, a pair of sharp 
scissors, and some library paste. Then you are 
ready to begin making valentines. 

One of the prettiest valentines to make is also 
one of the simplest. Take one of the lace paper 
hearts which measures about five inches from 
the point to the indentation at the top. These 
hearts are made in various sizes to use as table 
decorations at valentine parties, so you can get 
whatever size you prefer. Lay this heart on 
the stiff red paper and with a pencil draw a heart 
which will measure about a half inch larger all 
around than the lace one. Cut this red heart 
out carefully, and fasten the two together with 
a little library paste. The hearts do not need 
to be pasted all over. Just a little dab of paste 
here and there will be sufficient. Then cut from 
the red paper a flying cupid, like Fig. i. His 
wings are lifted and his arms outstretched to- 
ward the little boy or girl to whom he is flying. 
Paste this cupid nearly in the center of the lace 
heart, and on the back of the valentine you may 
write if you like; 

All hearts are yours, 
Both great and small; 
But mine's the truest 
Of them all. 



1/ vnot. of me 
sheuia. ceasa 



X/' 



*jt!' f%e<3.rt 








\ 






HOME MADE VALENTINES 




THE FUNNIEST VALENTINE OF ALI, 



HOMEMADE VALENTINES 193 

Another very attractive valentine requires 
nothing more in the way of material than a little 
of the stiff red paper, a bit of raffia, or gold cord, 
and a pen and ink. Cut from the red paper 
four hearts which are quite evenly graduated in 
size. The first one measures three inches from 
the point to the top indentation; the second one 
measures two and one-half inches ; the third, two 
inches; and the fourth, one and one-half inches. 
Punch two holes near the top, and two near the 
bottom of all except the smallest heart, spacing 
the holes in the largest heart about an inch and 
a half apart, and narrowing down the spacing 
for the others correspondingly. The smallest 
heart needs only two holes at the top. Thread 
a darning needle with the raffia and string the 
hearts together, sewing down through the top 
hole of one heart, up through the bottom hole, 
down through the top hole of the next one, and 
so on, placing the largest heart at the top, and 
the others in the order of their size. When you 
have reached the smallest heart, bring your raffia 
up through the second top hole, and string up 
the other side of the hearts. This fastens the 
hearts together on one continuous string, and 
leaves the two ends to tie at the top in a bow. 
Now come the decorations. 



194 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

Print neatly with pen and ink the following 
message : 

For the first heart : 

// you of me should cease to think 
The second : 

My heart would shrink 
The third: 

And shrink 
The fourth : 

And shrink. 

A third valentine is made like a little book, 
using the stiff red paper, some thin white paper, 
two paper roses, and some red or gold paper 
hearts. Cut from the red paper an oblong which 
measures four and a half inches long — that is, 
just twice as long as it is wide. Fold this 
through the center, making a square book. In 
the middle of each inside page, paste a paper 
rose. If you have not been able to buy the paper 
roses, some flowers cut from the colored pages 
of an old seed catalogue will do just as well. 
Next, cut a piece of thin white paper — rice 
paper is the best, but almost any transparent 
paper will do — four inches square. Fold this on 
one of the diagonals, so that two opposite cor- 
ners shall meet. Then fold again, so that the 
other two opposite corners shall meet each other, 



HOMEMADE VALENTINES 195 

Next cut this as shown in Fig. 2. The cuts are 
made parallel to the long side of the triangle, and 
are an eighth of an inch apart. Next, unfold 
the paper again, working very carefully, for the 
parts which have been cut will cling together and 
tear easily. When you have made your square 
flat again, fold forward each little corner that 
you have made with your cuts, and you will find 
that by lifting the center, your paper will come 
up in a very surprising way. Paste this square 
on the right hand page of your book, over the 
rose, and on each corner of the white border 
paste a small gold heart. 

On the back you may write: 

Your heart's like this rose 

That I scarcely can see, 
If I Und the way in 

Will you give it to me? 

Very few of these valentines will fit an ordi- 
nary envelope, so it is better to make a special 
one for each. For a square or heart shaped val- 
entine mark a square large enough to hold it, and 
draw its two diagonals forming four equal tri- 
angles. Then draw against each side of the 
square a triangle like these. But these, if folded 
in would pot lap over each other, and you want 



196 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

them to lap over like a real envelope, so you must 
make lines outside of the edges of these triangles 
and parallel to them and curve them down at the 
ends like Fig. 3. Then lay your valentine in- 
side, fold the triangles over, and seal the en- 
velope with a heart. If the valentines are to go 
by mail you can put the address on a larger 
heart pasted on the front of the envelope. If 
the child to whom you are sending it lives 
nearby, it is much more fun to put just 

Miss Dorothy Smith. 

Courtesy of St. Valentine. 

and then tuck it under Dorothy's door, ring the 
bell and run. 



HOW TO MAKE THE EASTER RABBIT 

THE Easter Bunny has come to town. He 
chatters about snowdrops, and carols, and 
crocuses as he trots from out the woods and 
across the new green grass, and he brings a 
basket of eggs for all good children. The Eas- 
ter Bunny is the Santa Claus of the spring. The 
white aproned, wooden shod Dutch children 
from over the sea look forward to his visit and 
write him pretty notes which they hide under 
the leaves and moss of the forest. They think 
that they hear his soft footsteps at night when 
they are tucked away in their hard beds, and they 
believe that he trots up and down the village 
streets at night, lifting all the latches and peer- 
ing through the keyholes to find the good chil- 
dren who will merit the gayest colored eggs on 
Easter Sunday. 

The Easter shops are full of rabbits at Easter 
time, candy bunnies, soft wool bunnies, and real 
hair bunnies. A child is scarcely able to choose 
between them all, but if your pocketbook is 
empty of pennies you can still have an Easter 

197 



198 GIRLS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS 

rabbit of your very own at no cost at all. You 
will be able to make your own bunnies; one for 
yourself, and as many more as you like to give 
away for Easter gifts. 

The most satisfactory of homemade Easter 
rabbits is the one shown in the picture. He is 
serviceable enough to form a nursery playfellow 
for ever so many days, and he will be a much 
more unique Easter gift, carefully wrapped in 
dainty tissue paper, than any Easter card to be 
found in the shops. He may be big or little, 
colored or white. In whatever dress he appears 
he will be a delight to the child who makes him 
and the one who receives his rabbit-ship. 

To make the Easter bunny, a sheet of rather 
heavy paper is needed. Water color paper will 
serve well, or book cover paper, or a light weight 
bristol board. The rabbit may be white, but 
if he is to be used for an Easter card, he will 
be very pretty made of a delicate shade of tan 
or green or blue paper. 

He must have a fat body, and two legs, two 
paws, a head, and a short tail. The patterns 
shown in the illustration show just how these 
separate parts are to be made. They may be 
used the exact size of the printed diagram for 
a tiny Easter card, or they may be enlarged to 




Pattern for card board rabbit. 
199 



200 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

make a big toy bunny for the nursery. As 
soon as the patterns for the different parts of 
the rabbit have been obtained by tracing from 
the printed illustrations or enlarging them, a 
child may begin making Easter rabbits. 

The sheet of paper to be used for the rabbit 
is laid, smooth and flat on a table or desk. Each 
pattern whether of head, ear, paw or tail is laid 
on the paper separately, using as little space as 
possible so as to obtain a number of bunnies 
from one sheet of paper. Each pattern is held 
down securely, with a child's fingers or with 
pins and it is drawn around with a soft pencil; 
cutting with scissors very carefully on these 
lines, is the next step, and then the rabbit 
can be put together. His legs, paws, ears, head, 
and tail are fastened to his body by means of 
brass paper fasteners which may be bought in 
different sizes from very tiny ones for an Easter 
rabbit card to large ones that will serve for a big 
play bunny. At the points in the diagram where 
there are dots, holes should be punched in the 
sections of the rabbit with the point of a knife 
or an embroidery stiletto. Five paper fasteners 
put through these holes fasten the sections to his 
body. The Easter bunny should be given inked 
eyes, and when he is finished, he will carry a lit- 




JOINTED CARDBOARD RABBIT 



THE EASTER RABBIT 201 

tie folded paper basket of candy eggs on his arm, 
he will stand up or sit down, move his head, cock 
his ears, — in short, he will be as much alive as 
Bre'r Rabbit, Peter, or Benjamin Bunny. 

Peanuts make fine little Easter rabbits. Se- 
lect the long, fat peanuts that are straight and 
well grown. Cut two long ears and a tail from 
white cotton batting and paste one ear each side 
of the peanut rabbit's head and glue a cotton 
tail in place. Two short pieces of fine wire 
wound with cotton stuck in the front of the nut 
form the little rabbit's front legs. Similar wires 
bent at the center and pushed into the opposite 
end of the nut form the back legs. Round pencil 
dots form the eyes and a short, straight pencil 
line the rabbit's mouth. A number of these 
queer little peanut bunnies may be scattered 
about for table decorations for an Easter break- 
fast or luncheon with novel effect. 

The twig rabbits are the most attractive of all, 
and will be delightful little creatures to make. 
Two short twigs are crossed, sawhorse fashion, 
and tied together to make the rabbit's front legs. 
Two more are crossed and tied in the same 
fashion to make the back legs. A longer, 
straight twig is laid across these, just as a 
strip of wood is placed on a pair of sawhorses. 



202 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

and it is tied to the two sets of shorter twigs. 
This is the twig rabbit's skeleton; his back- 
bone, and his four Httle legs. His head is 
a ball of cotton batting, the kind known as 
absorbent cotton will be best, tied to another 
twig, a bit of the twig being left for his neck. 
The cotton head and neck are then tied to one 
end of the body. Each little twig leg is wound 
with cotton which is tied in at the top with thread. 
Last, a long piece of cotton, wide enough to cover 
the whole body is cut and slipped over the 
longer twig and fastened underneath with a few 
stitches. The rabbit's cotton head may be very 
easily shaped by pulling out the nose and cheeks 
a bit. Stitches done with black worsted, or bits 
of black paper glued on make the eyes, and two 
long cotton ears made separately, are stitched to 
the head. 

When a number of the cotton rabbits have 
been made, they may be hidden about the house, 
and a jolly hunt instituted after the Easter break- 
fast when the children and grown folks try to 
discover their hiding places. 



MAKING MORE EASTER TOYS 

THE eggs must be either boiled or blown for 
making Easter Gifts. The simplest and 
most satisfactory method of blowing is to make 
tiny pin holes, one in each end of a smooth, white 
egg. Then, holding the egg over a saucer and 
blowing steadily in one end, the yolk and white 
will be emptied out of the other end and the shell 
will be left intact and hollow, ready for any sort 
of fascinating transformation. 

The boiled egg can be easily decorated by the 
younger children so as to make a charming little 
home gift. The simplest treatment is to cover 
it with a thin wash of water color ; bright yellow, 
pale green, or violet, the colors of the spring. 
When this wash in perfectly dry, the children 
may paste to the painted surface one or two scrap 
pictures ; a picture of a rabbit, a spray of flowers, 
or one of the child figures that may be bought 
in sheets at a stationer's or kindergarten shop 
for a few cents. A second method of decorating 
one of these painted eggs is for mother to sketch 
the outline of a spring flower — tulip, dandelion, 

203 



204 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

or crocus — in pencil on the eggshell before the 
wash in put on. The pencilled lines will show 
through the soft tint of the wash and after the 
paint is sufficiently dry the flower outline can be 
filled in with a deeper shade, yellow for a crocus 
or dandelion, and scarlet for a tulip. 

The grandmother egg has pink cheeks done 
with crayon or water color paints, and the eyes, 
nose and mouth are drawn with ink. Two cir- 
cles drawn around the eyes and connected by a 
curved line will do for the old lady's spectacles. 
One roll of white crepe paper will make frilled 
caps for a score of these grandmother eggs. A 
long, narrow strip of the paper is ruffled with 
the fingers and pasted to the ruffle, covering the 
whole back of the tgg for the crown of the cap. 
A flopping bow made of another strip of paper is 
fastened to the grandmother's chin to represent 
cap strings and will also help her to stand on the 
table which she is to decorate Easter morning. 

The Chinaman's face is done entirely in India 
ink or with a soft black crayon. He has a small 
mouth and nose, and a pair of slanting eyes done 
in black on the white surface of the tgg. When 
the Chinaman's face is finished he should be 
given a long pigtail made of braided strands 
of raffia. A bit of black worsted ties the end of 








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(a) egg shell cradle and flower basket 

(b) egg grandmother, rabbit and brownie 

(c) egg woman, rolly-polly man and chinaman 




MAY BASKETS 



MAKING EASTER TOYS 205 

the braid and it is glued to the top of the egg by 
means of a circle of black cambric to which it is 
sewed. About the pigtail a fringe of hair can 
be drawn in pencil on the egg, and the jolly little 
egg Chinaman is done. 

It is possible to cut a blown eggshell if one 
goes about it very carefully. A very sharp pair 
of scissors is necessary to do this cutting neatly 
without breaking the shell. A line should be 
drawn around the shell lengthwise or crosswise, 
as the egg is to be cut, and the scissors are in- 
serted in a hole in the shell made with a pin. 
Special egg cutting scissors can be bought, or 
manicure or embroidery scissors may be used. 

A lovely Easter egg gift for children to make 
is a growing green plant in half an egg shell. 
The shell is cut in halves, horizontally, tinted 
some soft spring color with water or oil paints, 
and filled with damp earth. A bean, some bird 
seed or some hempseed is planted in the earth 
a week before Easter and the tiny green plant 
that sprouts out of the shell just in time for the 
feast of flowers will make a unique and dainty 
Easter offering. 

Quaint little rolly-poly men can also be made 
of eggshells from which the contents have been 
blown. One of the holes should be enlarged 



2o6 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

sufficiently to allow of a few tiny shot being 
dropped in. A dozen of these little lead balls 
will be sufficient, and after they have been in- 
serted, the opening in the egg is closed by means 
of a scrap of cloth that is pasted over it. The 
rolly-poly's face is then painted on one side of 
the egg. Cotton will do for hair, pasted over 
the paper, and a pointed cap, cut from brown 
crepe paper, is made cornucopia fashion and set 
on top of the little man's head. 

A doll's cradle can be made of a portion of an 
empty eggshell. Pencilled lines are drawn 
lengthwise and crosswise on a blown eggshell 
dividing it into quarters. One quarter is cut out, 
carefully, leaving the little cradle shown in the 
picture. A cotton batting lining and a little lace 
paper spread complete the dainty bed. 



HALF A DOZEN MAY BASKETS 

WHO found the first anemone this spring? 
Who knows the spot in the woods where 
the violets show their tiny blue faces first when 
the snow melts? What child came home from 
school one afternoon with a bunch of violets as 
blue as the spring sky? 

Don't forget the green places in the woods 
where the spring flowers blossom. And don't 
pick all the flowers before May Day. So many 
wonderful things happen on the eve of May Day. 
The fairies dance on the green. You can be 
sure that they danced because they leave bits of 
their short cobweb skirts in the grass and their 
tiny footprints in the dew. 

Another wonderful thing may happen on May 
Day Eve, too. Perhaps someone whom you are 
very fond of will come creeping quietly through 
your garden after supper, will run up to your 
front door and hang a May basket full of the 
dainty, new spring flowers on the door knob, and 
then run away before you can find out who it is. 
When you discover the basket, and take out the 

207 



2o8 GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

blossoms, tucked in among them there may be a 
sHp of paper with a bit of rhyme written on it, 
all about spring, and flowers, and the other 
happy things of May. 

Would you not like to hang May baskets,- too? 
Listen, and you shall learn how to make six. 

Every little country girl knows where to find 
sweet grass. If May is a cold month, and the 
sweet grass is not long enough to braid into 
lengths for a basket, some narrow strips of 
rushes will do quite as well, or the new green 
willow sprouts. Three strands are woven into a 
long braid, new strands being spliced in when 
the first ones give out. When the braid is three 
or four yards long, it should be shaped and sewed 
with strong green thread into basket shape, a 
portion of the braid being saved to sew on for a 
handle. 

An old cardboard candy box will make a 
charming May basket. The cover is removed, 
and the outside of the box is covered with pink 
crepe paper, wider by an inch top and bottom 
than the width of the box. When the crepe 
paper is glued to the box the overlapping edges 
are ruffled, and some tissue paper roses are glued 
in for decoration. A strip of the cover is cut for 
a handle, is wound with the pink crepe or pink 



HALF A DOZEN MAY BASKETS 209 

ribbon and is fastened to the box with a few 
strong stitches. Three more roses are tied to 
the handle, and the basket is done. 

A May basket made in the shape of a heart 
will be very attractive. A cardboard heart as 
large as one wishes the basket to be, is cut to 
form the bottom of the basket. Six inches in 
the widest part is a good dimension for this 
basket. A strip of cardboard, three or four 
inches high, is sewed to the edge of the heart 
with over and over stitches, and is sewed to- 
gether at the point of the heart. The basket is 
then covered with pale blue crepe paper, ruffled 
at the top, and a wire handle, wound with blue 
ribbon and having a big ribbon bow at the top 
is added. Fill your heart May basket with vio- 
lets and see how pretty it will look! 

Two more hearts may be cut from a delicately 
tinted bristol board. They are fastened to- 
gether with a binding of gold passe partout tape, 
and a handle cut from the same bristol board is 
glued to the back of one of the hearts to hang the 
basket by. A ribbon bow is added to the handle 
and a bunch of artificial flowers is glued to the 
front. 

Water color paper, or construction paper which 
can be bought at an art shop may be woven, or 



2IO GIRLS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS 

folded to make two attractive May baskets. The 
woven basket is to be heart shaped also. Two 
pieces of paper measuring eighteen by six inches 
are folded in half so as to make two oblongs 
measuring nine by six inches on a side. The 
upper edges of each are curved with scissors, and 
the folded edges are cut into six one inch strips, 
the strips being six inches long. These strips 
are then interlaced, fastening the two pieces of 
paper together, and a dainty, woven heart basket 
is the result. Two soft, contrasting tints of 
color should be chosen for this woven basket, a 
pale green and a darker shade of the same tone, 
or pale pink and blue, or two tones of yellow. 

A square of water color paper may be folded 
to form a dainty May basket. The folding is 
done according to the diagram in the illustration. 
The square measuring twelve inches on a side is 
folded on the diagonals, and the diameters. The 
corners are then folded to meet the center of the 
square. Cuts are made as shown by the dotted 
lines in the diagram to form the handles. Two 
corners are then folded in to form the ends of 
the basket, and it is folded up on one diameter. 
The triangles formed when the handles were cut 
are next folded over the outside for flaps, and the 
basket is done. 



HALF A DOZEN MAY BASKETS 211 

Now we are ready to fill our six May baskets. 
Soft moss may be laid in the bottom of each bas- 
ket first to keep the flowers fresh. Then some 
violets, and anemones, and buttercups, and wind 
flowers, and bloodroot blossoms. All our dainty 
woods flowers are laid on the moss. Shall we 
write some rhymes to lay in the top of the bas- 
kets, too? 

Sunshine and laughter and joy together 
These do we wish you this sweet May weather. 

Here is a nosegay, sweet and gay 
Plucked for you on this eve of May. 
Blue, blue violets — they are your eyes — 
Pinks — your cheeks where the dimple lies. 
Trailing wind flowers — your curling hair — 
Forget-me-nots — for my love are there 
All in a nosegay, sweet and gay, 
Plucked for you on this eve of May. 



THE END 



SEP 18 1912 



